Last Mech Standing
by Crystine Decepticon
Summary: Heroic Decepticons AU. One-shot. Starscream and Scavenger find themselves trapped in a deadly game of Last Mech Standing. Rated M for coarse language and violence. Action/psychological thriller.
1. Shall We Play a Game?

_Shall we play a Game?_

* * *

When Starscream regained consciousness, the first thing he experienced was disorientation, and distorted vision. The second thing he noticed was that he was lying on a cold, metallic surface. His third thought was that he didn't know where he was, or how he'd got there. As his vision began to readjust, he struggled to sit up and felt someone grab a hold of his arm, pulling him up, until he was standing. He staggered slightly, but the hand held him steady.

"Starscream?"

He recognized the mech's voice; it belonged to one of the Constructicons. "Scavenger?" Still adjusting his visual field, he strained to look at the purple and green mech. "Ugh, what happened?"

Scavenger stared back at him, his hand still steadying the seeker. "I have no idea. I don't remember," he replied in a low voice.

Taking several more moments to steady himself, Starscream looked around to take in their unfamiliar surroundings. He did not expect what he saw. He and Scavenger were inside a large, empty room, constructed of solid metal all around. It had no doors and no windows, nor any cracks or seams of any kind. Inside the room with them were eight others; some were mechanoid and some organic. Two of the mechs in the room were Autobots; the rest he did not recognize. All of them appeared to be disoriented and confused to some degree.

"Where the hell are we?"

Cautiously releasing the seeker's arm, Scavenger only shook his head in response.

Starscream walked slowly towards the nearest wall and began to examine it. "Where is the way out of here?" he asked.

The Constructicon walked towards him. "There isn't, as far as I can tell," he said uncertainly, his voice still barely above a whisper as he furtively glanced behind them at the group of strangers in the room.

Starscream stopped momentarily to look at him. "What do you mean there isn't? There must be."

"There's nothing behind these walls except reinforced metal… and empty space. No doors, no openings of any sort. Nothing," Scavenger explained, and then added, "Not even any other life signs."

"What?" Starscream faced him squarely, a hint of apprehension now creeping into his voice. "But that's impossible." He refused to accept the notion that they were trapped inside some strange, cuboid prison along with a bunch of other inmates, and no way of escape. Abruptly, he turned back to the wall and began to bang on it with his fist. The metal did not give way at all, as if it were reinforced with some kind of impenetrable force field. He couldn't even make a scratch in it. He took a few steps back and aimed both his null rays at it, but when he tried to fire them, nothing happened. "My weapons don't work." He began to panic, staring at his arm weapons in shock and disbelief.

"Neither do mine. I already tried." Scavenger wished he had some good news to share, but he did not. It seemed like they had both woken up to some bizarre, convoluted alternate reality. Or some lucid nightmare.

"Well, how the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?" Starscream's voice increased in both pitch and volume, giving away his nervousness and frustration.

His agitation must have caught the attention of others in the room, because the two Autobots, who had also just awoken to take stock of their current situation, now began to approach the two Decepticons. One of them was a heavily-armored and beige, blue and green colored Autobot, whilst the other was a silver, purple and red flyer who looked like he transformed into a B-1 Lancer.

"Decepticons – I should've known you'd have something to do with this," said the bigger Autobot in a gruff voice, smacking his fist into the palm of his other hand while looking directly at Starscream. "Let us all out of here, now, or I'll pound you both into scrap-metal."

"You think _I _had something to do with this?" Starscream shot back incredulously. The Autobot was much larger than he was, but he did not let that get in the way of his indignation. Still, he backed away as the Autobot took another step threateningly towards him.

"You're both Decepti-_creeps_, aren't you?" he leered at them menacingly. "Pulling a stupid stunt like this would be right up your alley, wouldn't it?"

"Fuck off," Starscream told him. "We had nothing to do with this, so why don't you just go back to the primordial swamp from where you came from, you useless fuck?"

"Watch your language, asshole, unless you want me to rip you a new one!" The large Autobot took another step towards the seeker, ready to take a hard swing at him, but Scavenger grabbed Starscream by the arm and quickly pulled him away. In the same instant, the Autobot flyer rested a hand on his companion's shoulder, making him think twice about starting a brawl.

"Don't waste your time on scum, Fisitron. He ain't worth it. Let's just try and get out of here first."

Fisitron growled, giving both Decepticons a death glare, but then began to move away.

Once the immediate threat had passed, Starscream met Scavenger's gaze as the Constructicon looked back at him. "Can you believe that asshole? He thinks _we're_ behind this!" he exclaimed with antipathy.

Scavenger's expression was concealed by his full face mask, but his mannerisms indicated that he was anxious. "Starscream, we need to stay calm. I really think it's best if you don't–"

"Stay calm? How can you expect me to stay calm?" Starscream cut in quickly, as he pointed accusingly back at the two Autobots. "We're stuck inside some God-forsaken cube, with two slagging Autobots, and a bunch of… helpless strangers! I want to get the slag _out of here_!" Starscream turned abruptly after his brief rant and began to pace a few steps away from his only companion.

Scavenger released an inaudible sigh, but remained where he was, unsure of what to do. "Sorry," he said, not loud enough for anyone to hear though it was intended for Starscream.

A minute or so passed and Starscream, once he had sufficiently regained his composure and was able to think a little more clearly, walked back towards him. "Don't be sorry, Scavenger. It's not your fault." He paused, and then added, "I'm the one who should be sorry, not you."

Surprised that Starscream had even heard his apology, Scavenger met his gaze. "We really need to find a way out of here as soon as possible," he said in an urgent tone.

The way he had said it made Starscream feel even more uneasy; he glanced across the room, casting a wary optic at the other prisoners. Several of them were also becoming agitated, calling out to some invisible guard on the other side of the walls who probably didn't exist. "Why do you say that?" he inquired, making sure that none of the others in the room could overhear them. Scavenger hesitated, casting his optics down at the floor in thought. "Scavenger?"

When the green and purple Constructicon raised his head up again, he turned to look across the room. "Do you know those two Autobots?" he finally answered with a question of his own.

Puzzled, Starscream shook his head. "No. Should I?"

When Scavenger caught his gaze again, he seemed to have become more contemplative. "The one who wanted to hit you just now – Fisitron? You won't ever hear this from any mech, but he's a psychopathic killer. The story goes that he murdered a couple of Decepticon sympathisers in cold blood on their way to a protest march, just before the Revolt took place."

Starscream seemed to draw back with the revelation, but then he quickly shook it off. "Well, he's an Autobot. What do you expect? I guess they're not all angels, are they?"

Ignoring his irony, Scavenger grabbed a hold of the seeker's forearm and pulled him closer, then spoke in a harsh whisper into his audio receptors. "The other Autobot – the flyer who's with him? He's even worse; he's a hired assassin."

Starscream seemed genuinely surprised. "Are you sure – how do you know that?"

Scavenger hesitated for a moment, making sure that the two Autobots weren't looking their way. "It's a long story, but… you remember when civil unrest began to break out in the capital a few weeks ago? When that Autobot Elder – Hexagine – was found murdered?"

"Yes, yes… the Autobots introduced harsher penalties for politically motivated crimes as a result," Starscream recalled, not quite seeing the connection.

"Yeah, including the authorization to apprehend suspects without evidence, and confiscate everything they own." He paused, watching the seeker's reaction. "Anyway, I found out later that Hexagine had been assassinated by a mech who goes by the name of Shadowstriker, though that's probably not even his real name." He motioned towards the flyer. "Well, I'm pretty sure that's _him_."

The seeker looked at him in confusion, keeping his voice low. "How do you know that's him?" he asked, nodding towards the same silver, purple and red form of the Autobot flyer standing across the room.

"Because Swindle showed me a holo-form of him, plus Soundwave later confirmed who he was, and also that the assassination had been a false flag," Scavenger replied, turning to look at Shadowstriker across the room. "I'm pretty certain it's him. Looks exactly like the holo-form I saw."

Taking a step back, Starscream took a moment to consider what he had just learned. "Okay, so we have two cold-blooded killers trapped in here with us. That's just great."

"The thing is, they're not only cold-blooded killers, but I've heard that they both harbour a deep hatred for all Decepticons – I mean, even more than is usual for Autobots," Scavenger continued, probably understating the truth a little. "Let's just – be careful around them, okay? Especially without the use of our weapons."

"So, what you're telling me is that not only are we both stuck with two deranged, Decepticon-hating killers, but we don't have a damn clue about how we ended up in here?" He met Scavenger's visored optics, trying to make sense of the whole situation, and then shook his head. "Okay. What's the last thing you remember – just before you woke up?"

Scavenger began to pace slowly away in thought. "I'm not really sure. I just remember helping out with a few odd jobs at our new metal refinery – nothing unusual. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. One moment I was walking back from the loading bay, and then the next… I'm in here." He gave a small shrug, his palms turning upwards in gesture. "What about you?"

"Similar story, except that I was inspecting one of our recently repaired cruisers. I remember powering it up and going through the usual pre-launch checks – nothing unusual, either." Starscream recalled how that memory ended suddenly and then the next thing he knew he had woken up in this prison, disoriented and defenceless. "You all did an excellent job with it, by the way. I mean with the cruiser. I'd meant to tell Scrapper in person next time I saw him."

"Thanks," the Constructicon replied with sincerity. "I'm sure he'll appreciate it."

"That's _if_ I'll ever get the chance to tell him."

"Why wouldn't you?" Scavenger asked, walking back to join him, though he was afraid of the answer he was going to receive.

A long moment of silence followed. "I don't think we're supposed to get out of here alive." Starscream's voice had dropped to a near whisper as he said this, though there was only a thin layer of calm and self-control that was holding back the rage he felt towards their current predicament, and towards the unknown perpetrators behind it.

Before Scavenger could respond, wanting to assure him that he would do anything he possibly could to help get them both out of here both alive and intact, he noticed two of the strangers in the room approaching them, and he tapped Starscream lightly on the forearm, pointing, to alert him to their presence.

One of them – a tough-looking, leather-clad male humanoid – spoke first, his voice deep and rough. He was of a much heavier build than his companion, with large muscles that bulged underneath his black jacket. "Hi, I'm Valkyr. This is Raptor. We're from Xylanthia. Who are you freaks?"

Starscream crossed his arms, studying the two of them with only casual interest. They both appeared to be organics, and he realized that he and Scavenger had been mass-shifted down to match their approximate size and height. The same appeared to be true for the two Autobots. "I'm Starscream, and this is Scavenger. We're from Cybertron."

"Scavenger, huh?" Valkyr nodded in amusement as he eyed them both appraisingly. "Nice weapons you got there, Starscream." The man noticed his wings, made as if he were impressed. "You can fly?" Starscream gave him no immediate answer, so the man changed the topic. "Any idea where we are?" he asked finally.

"None," Starscream said honestly.

After a brief pause, Valkyr nodded casually towards the two Autobots in the background behind him. "You know those two metalheads?"

"Not really," Starscream answered dismissively, and then asked Valkyr a question of his own. "You two are both organics?"

The man laughed out loud. "Organics?" He pulled a packet of cigarettes from his front jacket pocket and casually lit the end of it with his lighter. He took a long drag from it before exhaling a smoky mouthful a little too close to Starscream's face. "Sure, I'm an organic," he finally replied, then pointed a thumb at Raptor. "But _he's_ a cyborg." His companion, Raptor, was clad in a black, thick rubber space-suit, padded heavily at the front. The only thing that might have given away his semi-organic nature was the thin visor that completely covered his eyes.

Starscream stepped back to avoid the foul air, waving it away. "You really shouldn't smoke in here," he said.

The seeker's bluntness seemed to irritate Valkyr. "Oh, yeah? And why is that?" He took another puff, but this time blew it out harder, as if in defiance.

"We don't know how long we're all going to be stuck in here together – maybe a couple of hours, maybe longer – and in case you haven't noticed there are no windows or air vents anywhere, which means that there's only a limited supply of oxygen – something that you organics in here require to live, but which will be depleted quickly if you don't stop indulging your filthy habit," Starscream explained.

Valkyr looked over at his partner in amusement. "Looks like we have ourselves a smartass," he said, took another puff and exhaled more smoke, slowly and deliberately, before casually turning and walking away.

The two Decepticons watched them leave to join two others, both also male humanoids. One of them immediately began to cough before rebuking Valkyr for smoking and taking up precious oxygen, but the Xylanthian simply laughed in the man's face, then wielded a sharp, switchblade knife.

"I'll do whatever the fuck I please," Valkyr sneered at the man, who immediately backed down.

"He seems nice." Scavenger's comment was laced with obvious sarcasm toward Valkyr, and noticed that his companion's mood had shifted a little. "Starscream?"

As if he could read Scavenger's mind, he replied, "There's something about those two that really rubs me the wrong way," he said and then, aware of the obviousness of his statement, he clarified, "Other than their impoliteness, I mean."

"Oh?" Scavenger prompted.

"Yes, there's something about that Valkyr character… but I don't know what it is."

Scavenger leaned against the wall, his thoughts now turned to finding a way of escape, but he had no great ideas, nothing that he thought would help. He sighed, and Starscream, still standing with his arms folded, turned and looked back at him. "What if you're right, Starscream? What if we don't get out of here?" he managed.

Starscream walked over to him. "I don't know what's going to happen, but one thing's for certain: I'm going to try my damndest to find a way out – I don't care what it takes." With a renewed sense of hope, Scavenger returned his gaze and nodded. Then Starscream cast his optics around the room, studying its inmates again. "I think the first thing we should do is try to determine who we can trust, and who we can't."

"Well, the Autobots are definitely out. So are Valkyr and Raptor," Scavenger replied, dismissing them aloud, "and I've no idea who those other four are."

"Neither do I." Starscream grabbed his companion's arm and guided him towards the center of the room. "So, why don't we go over and find out."

Reluctantly, Scavenger followed, though he was not looking forward to mingling with the odd crowd; his instincts told him that they were bad news.

The other four inmates turned out to be not much help. One of the other two humanoid organics, Max, wanted nothing to do with Scavenger or Starscream; he seemed to have an issue with mechanoids, and had demanded that they stay away from him. The other one – the same one who had angered Valkyr when he'd admonished him for his smoking – said that his name was Cyrus. He was friendlier, and even seemed helpful, though there was something about him that made Scavenger think he was untrustworthy. Both of these humanoids claimed they were from a planet in the Rigel star system.

The last two inmates were non-transforming robots from the planet Azure, which supported a mechanized world that the two Decepticons were reasonably familiar with. One of them was mech and the other femme, and their names were Brom and Tia, respectively. They were both a light blue color, with simple robot bodies, but Brom was slightly larger than his partner, who was sleek and feminine. The two of them clung to each other, huddled together as if they were joined at the hip.

"Do either of you know how you got here?" Starscream ventured to ask them.

"N-no," Tia shook her head nervously, looking to her partner for support. "We were simply returning home from an evening out at the cinema. We were on the tube, and then…" She trailed off, looked like she was about ready to break down in tears.

Starscream wondered vaguely whether she could produce actual tears, like organics did. "The tube?" he asked.

"Network of transport tunnels," Scavenger elucidated.

"Ah."

"Oh, _please_, you've got to help us! You're our only hope!" Tia pleaded, abruptly reaching out to grab hold of Starscream, but he instinctively backed away. He felt uncomfortable about being anybody's saviour, especially when the victim was a stranger he'd only just met. He wasn't Optimus Prime, after all.

"I'll do the best I can," Starscream told her after a pause, "that's all I can promise."

"Thank you," said Brom, pulling Tia closer in a protective embrace. "If you can find a way to get Tia out of here, I'll be forever in your debt. You won't regret it, I promise you," he said to Starscream.

The seeker had heard just about enough from the two of them, and he suddenly got the urge to get away for a few moments so he could think.

Unfortunately, however, Cyrus had overheard the conversation, and his curiosity had gotten the better of him. He walked over to join the two Decepticons. "Excuse me – I couldn't help but notice, but aren't you two Decepticons?" he said, regarding them with mild interest. "Not that it's any of my business, but I've heard that the Galactic Alliance recently issued a generous reward for any information that might lead to the capture of any Decepticon within the Joint Military Zone."

It took a great deal of self-control for Starscream not to imagine punching Cyrus' lights out, in vivid detail. "We don't recognize the Alliance's authority, fuckwit," he said simply. He couldn't help it; idiots like Cyrus annoyed him.

Cyrus gave him a dismissive shrug. "Hey, no offence intended, but I can't help it – I used to be a cop."

Just as Starscream was about to give up and ignore him, words suddenly appeared on the wall in front of them all. Max pointed frantically, getting everyone's attention, while Valkyr shouted at everyone to shut the hell up. Scavenger moved instinctively closer to Starscream, and the room settled into an awkward silence as all eyes and optics gazed up at the writing that had just appeared, repeated in each of their native languages. It was holographic in nature, formed from laser light.

_Shall we play a Game?_

_You are all here because you are guilty._

_As punishment, you have all been sentenced to die._

_However, the Game Master is willing to offer only one of you the chance to walk out of here alive._

_To win the Game, you must be the last man, or mech, left standing._

_You have only 6 hours to play the Game._

_If there is more than one of you left standing after 6 hours, you will all die and there will be no winner._

_The winner, if there is one, shall be rewarded with one million credits._

Then the writing disappeared, and was replaced with a countdown clock, beginning at 06.00.


	2. 0600

_06.00_

* * *

"What the fuck?!" Valkyr shouted into the air. "Hey! Hey! What the fuck is this?! Let me out of here! Do you here me? _Let me the fuck out of here_!" He banged his fist against the wall in rage, screaming out at the top of his lungs.

Cyrus kept his thoughts to himself, while Max joined Valkyr in slamming his fists against the wall in a desperate attempt to be heard, but it was completely futile. The two Autobots tried their weapons again, but they had been deactivated.

"I can't believe this!" Fisitron called out. "Hey, let us out! I don't want to play this fucking game! You asshole!" But all he got was silence for his efforts, and one less minute on the countdown clock: 05.59.

"Guilty? Guilty of what?" Starscream's red optics stared at the clock in disbelief as his mind raced a million miles an hour. "Shit," he said softly as he backed up a few steps. "Shit," he repeated. Then he became suddenly aware of everyone's panicked shouting and frantic pleas for help all around him, except for Scavenger, who stood quietly by his side with an expression that was forever hidden by his face mask. He turned to him abruptly and grabbed hold of his arms with both hands, shaking him. "We've got to find a way out!" he said forcefully.

"What if we just refuse to play?" Scavenger suggested, but he sounded doubtful.

Starscream shook his head, rejecting that possibility. "No. If we refuse to play while we're still in here, _they_ – the Game Master or whoever the fuck it is – will kill us anyway."

"It could be a trick, you know," the Constructicon said. "All of this."

Frustrated that they couldn't come up with any real answers, Starscream released his grip on his companion and looked away in exasperation. "But what if it _is_ real? Do you really want to take the chance that it isn't?"

Scavenger lowered his optics. "No, I guess not." Then, "Have you tried your private com link to see if you can contact the others? Maybe, if we could get a message out to Megatron–"

"No, Scavenger! I've already tried, and it doesn't work! Nothing here seems to work," Starscream replied impatiently. He took a moment to center himself. The last thing he wanted to do was direct his anger toward the only friend he had in this crazy place. "Look, we don't even know where we are. We could be light years away from home, for all we know."_ May Primus help us_, he thought.

"They'll probably send a search party to look for us, once they realize we're missing," Scavenger suggested hopefully.

Starscream thought for a moment, looking up at the stark grey, metallic ceiling in repulsion. "Yes, perhaps – eventually, but it might be too late for us by then, even if they do manage to find us. There's _got_ to be a way out of here," he said in a lowered voice, and then considered the message that had been displayed on the wall. "So, apparently we are all guilty of something, and deserve to die. We don't even get a fair hearing," he said disgustedly, only half-joking. "Who do you suppose is behind this?"

His friend shrugged. "Whoever the Game Master is, he probably knows who we are, and either wants us all to slag each other for his own entertainment, or he has some sort of personal vendetta against each one of us."

"You know, you might be right. The Game Master probably knows who we are," Starscream repeated, following the logic. "Which means that everybody here has something in common; everybody here must _know_, or at least have some sort of connection to, the Game Master in some way."

"Like how?" Scavenger asked curiously.

"Like – I don't know. Maybe we've all shared an encounter with him recently, or have had some sort of dealings with him in the past, or… I don't know." Starscream shook his head and sighed in frustration. "Not that any of that is going to help us, anyway."

"You never know." Silence fell between them as they tried to figure out what was going on. On the wall, the clock kept counting down. "Okay, what if… what if the Game Master is, I don't know – obsessed? Maybe none of us know _him_, but he knows all of _us_, you know? Maybe he's been observing us all, tracking our every move." Scavenger stopped, realizing just how silly it sounded.

"Like a stalker?" Starscream said amused.

"Yeah."

"Well, I suppose it's possible. Right now, nothing's more absurd than this ridiculous, fucked up game. I mean, does he – or _they_ – really expect us to just start killing one another?"

As ludicrous as it all was, Scavenger couldn't help but feel a strong sense of foreboding. "Probably not, but for one million credits…?" Considering the kind of characters they found themselves in the company of, he did not need to say anything more to make his point.

"Shit." Starscream realised that Scavenger was right. But what could they do? Shouting into thin air at the top of his vocal processor wasn't going to be much help, he knew, but it was certainly one way of releasing his frustrations. "_Shit_!" His arms outstretched, he beckoned their unseen warden as he motioned with his hands at the ceiling. "If you want to kill me, why don't you come in here and just do it yourself? Come on! Show yourself, you spineless jerk!" He had fought hard to stay calm, but his anger was starting to get the better of him. As he called out, he didn't notice the others in the room stop what they were doing to watch him.

"Hey, you, shut the _fuck up_!" Valkyr roared at Starscream, striding straight towards him threateningly. Scavenger stepped forward to try to stop him from laying into Starscream, but he was pushed roughly aside by the Xylanthian. "Do you _want_ them to kill us all right now?" he asked aggressively. "I'm sure as hell not going to die in here just because _you_ can't keep your stupid mouth _shut_!" he continued.

Starscream looked at him in shock. That's when he noticed Fisitron and Shadowstriker standing beside Valkyr; the three of them looked ready to take their own frustrations out on _him_.

A cruel smile twisted Fisitron's mouth. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we start with this creep?" His fists formed into hard balls of metal. "You know, I have a sudden urge to pound his face into scrap metal." Valkyr nodded in approval and began to laugh along with him.

Starscream's optics widened and he took a few steps back. "You wouldn't dare!"

Fisitron stepped forwards. "Hey, I'm only playing by the rules, and if only one of us gets to walk out of here alive, it's definitely not going to be _you_, Starscream," he teased, forcing the seeker closer towards the wall.

Suddenly, Starscream felt himself being slammed up against the smooth metal surface, a strong arm pressing against his throat.

The Autobot shoved his face up close and whispered in a very menacing, though barely audible voice. "Oh, I'm going to _enjoy_ this very much."

"Leave him alone!"

Starscream felt Fisitron's weight shift and become unsteady as Scavenger grabbed the heavy Autobot by his right arm from behind and pulled him back forcefully. Surprised and angered at the same time, Fisitron fought back, pushing against the Constructicon and realizing with disdain that Scavenger possessed far more physical strength than what he'd first assumed. "Stay the fuck out of this, or you'll be the first to join him on the scrap heap!" Fisitron warned. Starscream saw his opportunity, quickly pushing himself away from the wall and out of Fisitron's reach. However, Fisitron's rage was now directed fully towards his companion, and while Scavenger could probably match the Autobot in strength, it wasn't going to be enough to beat him. Fisitron had the more powerful inmates on his side, plus he had a natural tendency for aggression and a yearning for cold-blooded murder that would aid him in a one-on-one fight. Scavenger had neither of those two traits.

But with no one else to help and without any functioning weapons, Starscream was powerless to do much; regardless, he searched frantically for a way to stop Fisitron from turning his friend into scraplet food. Perhaps a distraction would help? "Fisitron!" he called out, just as the Autobot prepared to swing a fist at Scavenger. Fisitron paused at the sound of his voice, as if deciding which Decepticon he should kill first. "Fisitron! Maybe we can work something out?" It was probably a really bad idea, but it was the best he could come up with on short notice. "Maybe we could come to some sort of an agreement?"

Finally, Fisitron forgot about Scavenger and turned his attention back to the seeker. "What kind of an agreement?" He sneered at Starscream in contempt. He didn't usually make deals with Decepticons.

"Well, ah… if you back off, I'll split the reward with you, fifty-fifty."

Fisitron couldn't help but laugh. "You really are a lot stupider than I thought, you know that?" he said.

"Look, none of us has to die. If we all just refused to play, they'd have no choice but to let us go," Starscream continued, ignoring the Autobot's ridicule.

Fisitron's face scrunched up into a mean frown. "Let's not forget that you're a Decepticon. You _deserve_ to die!"

Starscream stepped away from Fisitron as the Autobot got closer. "The Game Master said that we're _all_ guilty," he continued, taking a huge risk now but unsure of what else he could do. "That includes you, Fisitron. So why don't you tell us: what have you done to deserve the death penalty?" Direct their attention onto the Autobot, rather than on himself. It seemed to be working; the room had fallen quiet as the others became suddenly curious about what Fisitron might have done to deserve to be in here.

"You sick jerk! How dare you question _my_ integrity?!" Fisitron shouted at him.

"Hey, that's a good fucking question, actually, so why don't you answer it?"

They all turned to see Max, who had just spoken up, standing behind Fisitron. The Autobot turned to face him, surprised.

"You're an Autobot, right?" Max asked him, pointing at the faction symbol on the top front of his chest; it wasn't just the ordinary Autobot symbol, but one that was reserved for the Elite Guard of the Autobot army.

"Yeah, that's right," he replied. "So?"

"So, as far as I see it, you're no better than they are," Max said, pointing to the two Decepticons. "You know how you Autobots are always trying to show the rest of us how fucking wonderful you are – how you're always out to protect the weak, uphold justice, save the universe from evil, and all that? Well, it's all _fucking bullshit_!"

Shadowstriker reached a hand out to try to calm the Rigelian man down. "Hey, watch what you say–"

"Don't touch me!" Max lashed out, pushing his hand away. "And _you_!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Fisitron. "You must have done _something_ to earn the honour of being in here with the rest of us. So, what did you do, huh? Accidentally burn down a village because of your stupid civil war? Proclaim all you wanted was peace, but then brought death and destruction to every world you ever touched? Or, maybe you murdered an entire family for money? You Autobot fuckers really have no scruples; isn't that right?"

Surprisingly, Fisitron did not react with anger to the unexpected accusations. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about," he answered simply. "You must have me confused with somebody else." He started to walk away from Max, doing an excellent job at keeping his cool. "I haven't done anything wrong. I don't know why the hell I'm even in here with you lot," he added.

Starscream sensed that Fisitron was hiding something; some dark secret, perhaps. But for now, at least, the danger that they'd all start attacking one other seemed to have passed. Then, in the temporary lull of the moment, he heard a solid object clatter to the floor. When he turned to look, he saw that it was a laser blaster, lying on the floor beside Max. It coincided with another message on the wall, this time addressed only to the Rigelian.

_Max,_

_Fisitron lied to you. Take the weapon, and kill him._

Just like in the stillness before a storm, Max only had a few seconds to realize what was happening, reach down and grab the weapon, before Fisitron lunged himself towards it, trying to grab it before Max did. He failed, and Max jogged backwards, victorious, holding up the laser blaster in one hand.

"Give that to me!" Fisitron demanded.

"No fucking way," Max sneered, and then aimed the gun at the Autobot. "It's _mine_, and now you're a dead mech." Then he grinned, with the full intention of carrying out the Autobot's execution.

Shadowstriker watched from the sidelines, not moving an inch to intervene for his comrade. Starscream and Scavenger also kept their distance, while the other inmates looked on in trepidation, both fearful and excited at the same time.

"Give me the weapon, humanoid. No one needs to get hurt," Fisitron appeared calm in the face of his imminent demise, though no one could tell what he was truly thinking.

Max ignored his advice. "You _lied_, Autobot! How can I trust anything you say, huh?" He applied pressure on the trigger, holding the gun out in front of him as he held it with both hands. "Get ready to die!"

Fisitron's blue optics showed fear for a split second, just before Max squeezed the trigger.

The powerful, searing blast from the laser gun hit Fisitron squarely in the chest, just above his spark chamber, and he staggered backwards as his frame absorbed the full brunt of the hit. It was no ordinary weapon; the energy that it emitted was far more powerful than any standard laser blaster known to his kind. Needless to say, it would have vaporized an organic instantly.

Max took a few steps closer as the heavy Autobot hit the floor with a thud. He pressed the trigger again just for good measure, enjoying the satisfaction of having been allowed to execute a low-life creature such as this mechanoid, but nothing more came out. The small sound of the repeated clicking of the weapon as he uselessly pressed the trigger filled his ears. He shrugged and threw the gun over his shoulder, discarding it like a piece of rubbish. It didn't matter, anyway. Fisitron was down.

As he turned and walked away, Fisitron's frame scorched and still sizzling from the blast, Max heard a low moan, and he stopped in his tracks. He turned around hesitantly, slowly, and his face was suddenly filled with dread as he saw Fisitron slowly sit up, one hand held against the blast hole in his chest. Pink fluid was leaking from his wound. Fisitron was clearly injured, but it hadn't been enough to kill him.

Max realized that he had been tricked. "Holy shit! What the fuck?" He silently cursed the Game Master and then panicked, glancing briefly at the useless weapon on the floor. "What the _fuck_?!" he shouted out in anger, even as Fisitron staggered to his feet, energon pooling on the floor and leaving a trail of droplets as he stepped towards Max.

"You shot me, you piece of slag!" Fisitron's anger showed as he moved closer toward Max with a single-minded determination. "You're going to pay for this!"

The Autobot suddenly lunged at Max, backing him into a corner, and grabbed him by his throat with both hands. Max couldn't speak or breathe as he felt the vice-like grip close off his windpipe. All he could do was stare back at Fisitron's cold optics, gasping for breath. Then, just as Max's energy began to slowly drain from his body, Fisitron released his grip, and Max dropped back against the wall, fighting for air with long, rasping breaths. Fisitron began to turn away, but then he heard Max talking, saying something, even through his difficult gulps of air.

"You should have killed me, Autobot filth!" Max said. "We all know that no one's getting out of here alive, anyway, so why don't you just finish the job, huh?" Fisitron turned back to him, surprised that he would say that. Did this humanoid have some sort of death wish? He must have. Max continued relentlessly. "Come on, you fucker! Why don't you just kill us all while you're at it, huh?! I know you fucking want to!" Max paused as he gradually recovered from his lack of breath and straightened to face the Autobot, goading him. "Come on! Kill me, you robotic piece of slag! I'm right here, you pathetic Autobot fuck! Why don't you just… _fucking_… _kill me_!"

Fisitron had heard enough. He lashed out, striking Max with his fist. The sound of the man's skull being smashed in didn't register until several seconds later, when his inert body collapsed in a heap. Dark red blood began to trickle out of Max's nose as he lay on the floor, dead.

Fisitron hadn't meant to hit him that hard. He hadn't meant to kill the bastard, even though he had been asking for it.

"Oh, shit," Fisitron said quietly, before he turned and walked back to join Shadowstriker, saying nothing more. Valkyr stared at him in silence, as Tia and Brom held onto one another in shock, horrified.


	3. 0500

_05.00_

* * *

If any of them had had any doubts about the seriousness of the deadly game that they found themselves in, they didn't anymore. After killing Max, Fisitron had retreated to his corner of the room, refusing to interact with anyone, at least for the time being. Tia couldn't help but let out the sporadic sob, while Valkyr paced the room restlessly, smoking non-stop. Max's lifeless body continued to be a stark reminder of what was to happen to them all.

Scavenger sat on a spot on the floor away from the others, leaning with his head back against the wall, while Starscream stood quietly beside him, carefully watching everyone in the room and waiting to see what would happen next.

For a good while, no one spoke; the mood was ominous, like inmates on death row waiting for their turn to be executed.

"Cyrus?" Starscream called out across the room, finally breaking the drought of silence. "How well did you know Max?"

Cyrus looked up from where he'd been seated cross-legged on the floor, and walked over to the two Decepticons. Fisitron watched them all with a wary, displeased expression, but then returned to his own thoughts, looking away. "Well enough," Cyrus replied, shrugging. "He was my partner."

"Partner?" Starscream queried.

"Yes. We were police officers." Cyrus gave a small sigh. "But that was about a year ago. He retired shortly after we made a successful bust on a case we'd been working on for several months. Said he couldn't handle the pressure anymore."

"Really?" Starscream thought for a moment. "What kind of case was it?"

Cyrus took a deep breath and then spoke softly, as if Max could still hear him. "Money laundering. Grand theft. We were part of an inter-planetary sting operation." He lowered his eyes to the floor. "Max found out that mechanoids were behind it – some of them Cybertronian, I believe. They must have realized he knew something, because some time afterwards they had his family killed for it."

"Oh," Starscream said, a look of apprehension crossing his face.

"Well, I guess that explains why he hated us so much," Scavenger commented.

"Did he ever find those responsible?" Starscream asked.

Cyrus shook his head. "No. They were hired hitmen – pros. Left no tracks."

"Hm. It makes me wonder," Starscream said, though he wasn't willing to speak his thoughts out loud. The Game Master was probably listening in to their every word, and he didn't want to give him any reason to target him and Scavenger more than they already were.

A new message suddenly appeared on the wall, and everyone turned to read it.

_There is a thief among you._

_Kill him and you shall be allowed to leave._

_However, identify him incorrectly, and you shall die._

Gasps of shock and fear escaped from Tia and Brom, as Fisitron slowly picked himself up to rejoin the others. Valkyr flicked his spent cigarette butt onto the floor, and then nervously lit another stick – his last one. "Fuck," he cursed, looking around at everyone in the room. "We're all fucking thieves," he said.

"Speak for yourself, Valkyr," Fisitron retorted, and then looked towards the Decepticons. "This one's _mine_." He headed straight for Starscream, who barely had time to move out of his way. "The only thieves I see around here are these two Decepticons, and I've had just about enough of this place, so guess what? You're my ticket out of here, _Starscream_." Once he had the seeker cornered, he slammed him hard against the wall.

"What do you think you're doing?" Starscream said, struggling against the larger Autobot. "Get away from me!"

Scavenger attempted to intervene, but this time he had his own problem to deal with, as Shadowstriker stepped towards him and drove a fist into his midsection, sending him backwards into the wall. The flyer threw his full weight behind another punch, which impacted against Scavenger's face plate. "I'll take care of this one," Shadowstriker said, his face contorted into a sneer. A third punch caused energon to trickle down from Scavenger's temple.

"Stop!" Starscream called out as he realized what was happening. Then, with all the strength and determination he could gather, he swung out at Fisitron with his right fist as hard as he could. It landed squarely on the Autobot's nose, who let out a cry of rage, and before he could retaliate Starscream hit him again, this time with his left fist. It met its target, leaving Fisitron with a smashed left optic.

Starscream realized that the laser wound the Autobot had sustained earlier must have weakened him a little, because he hesitated to fight back. Instead, Fisitron staggered backwards and away from Starscream.

"I'm going to tear your head off for that, Decepticon scum!" Fisitron threatened, holding a hand up against his shattered optic. In the meantime, Shadowstriker had stopped his attack against Scavenger to watch the skirmish that was unfolding. The Constructicon scrambled away from him as he did so.

"You're hardly behaving like an exemplary Autobot," Starscream taunted him, circling around as he kept his optics fixed upon his opponent, ready to evade any further attacks. He may not have been as physically strong as Fisitron, but he was a skilled fighter, both in the air and in hand-to-hand combat. "What is everyone going to think of you when they find out you've attacked innocent mechanoids?"

Fisitron growled, lunging at him awkwardly but overstepping and missing the mark, allowing his opponent to evade his manoeuvres easily. "You're hardly innocent," he seethed, and then added, "and besides, no one will ever know what I've done, because everyone in here's going to end up dead, anyway." Fisitron lashed out at him again, but his aim was sloppy. Starscream used the opportunity to execute a spinning back kick, and his foot made contact with Fisitron's chin. The Autobot fell backwards onto the floor, as fresh energon from his wound dripped onto the metal surface underneath him. "You piece of slag!" he said, and with an enraged growl he picked himself up again, staggering towards the seeker.

"Why don't you just give up? You're losing energon, and getting weaker by the second. Keep this up, and you won't be able to stay online," Starscream said to him, feeling more confident with every passing moment. Fisitron was his most immediate threat; if he could beat him, he would have a fighting chance.

"Shut up!" Fisitron said, and then lunged towards the seeker again, but this time his punch didn't miss its target, and Starscream ended up flat on his back, sliding across the floor with the force of the blow.

The seeker scrambled to pick himself up as quickly as he could, determined to make sure that Fisitron didn't get the chance to finish him off. As he staggered to his feet, he saw drops of pink fluid trickling down his front, and narrowly avoided a large glob of energon that splattered onto the floor beside him as Fisitron spat at him.

"Watch out!" Scavenger called out.

Starscream turned to look behind him, just in time to see a large arm swinging towards his head, and he ducked. He aimed a kick into Fisitron's midsection, but the Autobot caught his foot with both hands and slammed him back down to the floor. Then, before he knew what was happening, the heavy weight of Fisitron's frame was right on top of him, pinning him down. The last thing he saw before he was knocked out was a fist impacting the side of his face.

As Fisitron felt Starscream's frame go limp underneath him, he pushed himself off the seeker and took a moment to regain his strength. Then he slowly stood up and kicked his defeated opponent in a gesture of superiority. Slowly looking around the room, he noticed for the first time that the others were watching him intently. Shadowstriker walked towards him, looking down at the unconscious seeker with derision. "So, what are you waiting for? Are you going to finish him off?"

Fisitron gave him a cruel smile. "Believe me; I wouldn't miss this opportunity for _anything_." Then he leaned down, ready to crush the seeker's throat and rip his head from the rest of his body, but as his hands began to close in around Starscream's neck, he faltered, moved his hand instinctively to the wound in his chest. "Ugh, I don't feel so good," he said, a confused look on his face as he examined the energon that had continued to leak and spread all down his front.

"Here, I'll finish this asshole off for you, if you can't," the Autobot flyer offered.

As the two Autobots delayed finishing the job that Fisitron had started, they both failed to notice Scavenger sneak up behind Shadowstriker. The Constructicon realized that this was the only opportunity he would get to save Starscream's life, so he braced himself, prepared himself mentally for what he was about to do.

Before Shadowstriker even knew what had hit him, his frame dropped to the ground with a thud. Scavenger had managed to pound him across the back of the head with a well aimed strike at close range, which had been sufficient to knock him out cold.

"That's for calling him an asshole," Scavenger said to himself, rubbing his temple at the place where he'd been hit earlier by Shadowstriker. Fisitron looked up at him in surprise, but before he could do anything to stop the Decepticon, Scavenger focused all his strength and drove his foot down hard, straight into Fisitron's midsection and open wound.

"Ugh!" Fisitron cried out, his arms flailing as he fell backwards clear of Starscream. This time, however, he did not attempt to get up again as Scavenger stood over him threateningly. Then, once the latter was satisfied that Fisitron was no longer a threat, he turned away and knelt down beside Starscream.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Starscream regained consciousness to find Scavenger by his side, watching him. "Uh, what happened? I feel like I ran headlong into an armoured truck." He pushed himself up onto his elbows and then sat up. He touched his face and noticed that he had sustained a bit of damage. Across the room, Fisitron was resting on the floor as Shadowstriker sat beside him with a cold look in his optics, tending to his partner's wound as best he could.

"That's not too far from the truth," Scavenger said.

Starscream looked at him, as the memory of the last thing that he remembered before he was knocked out came flooding back into his processor. "Wait – how did I manage to not get myself killed?" That's when he realized what must have happened. "_You_ did that?" he asked in surprise, gesturing towards both Shadowstriker and Fisitron.

Scavenger shrugged. "I couldn't let them hurt you. And, besides, Fisitron was already weakened thanks to Max."

"If he doesn't get that hole in his chest repaired, he probably won't make it out of here," Starscream ascertained, though he wasn't exactly feeling sorry for the Autobot. "But he's the least of our worries," he added. When Scavenger didn't reply, he looked at his companion again. "You know, I'm really glad that you're in here with me, Scavenger," he said with sincerity, then decided that it had sounded all wrong, so he rephrased. "Not that I'm glad we're in here – what I meant was–" He paused, considering his next words. "If it weren't for you, I would have been turned into scrap metal by now for sure."

Scavenger's natural modesty caused him to act a little awkwardly whenever any praise or compliment was offered to him, especially from mechs like Starscream, whom he truly admired. "I'm glad you're here, too," he said simply. Then after a long pause, he added, "You were talking to yourself, you know, just before you woke up."

The seeker gave him a quizzical look. "Well, what was I saying?"

Scavenger looked away, his mood introspective. "'He will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will also make a way to escape, so that you can endure'… something like that." Starscream remained silent as he thought about the words that had come out of his own mouth. He was at a loss to explain why he would have spoken them unconsciously, or where they had originated from, but then his friend offered him an explanation. "I think it's a quote from one of Earth's sacred texts."

"Oh." Starscream shifted his position until he was sitting up a little more. He sat in silence for a while, contemplating their situation, and then changed the topic. "Has the so-called thief been identified yet?"

His companion shook his head. "No."

"I wonder who it could be," Starscream said, though he was reluctant to speak any names out loud, should the Game Master decide to kill him for it.

Scavenger gave a small shrug. "Well, the Autobots think it's us."

"It's no surprise." Starscream looked at the others across the room, evaluating each one as the potential thief. "It could be any one of them, really."

And then, as if to answer his question, a holographic moving image suddenly appeared on the wall, and everyone looked up to see the latest message from the Game Master. Starscream slowly stood up and walked closer to get a better look, while Scavenger followed him. The holo-movie showed what looked to be a surveillance camera view of a blue-colored mech breaking into a high-security vault and then pulling out a handful of green bars. The mech was frantically grabbing the bars and passing them to an accomplice off-screen. Then the movie ended, and the holo-image disappeared.

The room became very still for a few moments as each inmate sought to comprehend what they had just witnessed, until Valkyr shouted suddenly, striding over to one corner of the room and pointing a finger at the Azurian couple. "Him! That was _him_! Did you all see that?!" He glanced quickly around at everyone in the room. "_He's_ our thief!"

A look of dread washed over Brom's face, as Tia stared at him in confusion and denial.

"No!" she said finally, shaking her head in shock. "No, it can't be! Brom – Brom's not a thief. Please! It's some kind of trick. He's never stolen anything in his life, please!" she begged, pleading silently with Valkyr.

"Oh, yeah? Well, then, why the fuck would they have shown a moving image of him _clearly_ breaking into a vault, huh?" Valkyr argued. "Care to explain to us all what the hell it was that we just saw, _Brom_?"

Brom gently pulled away from Tia's embrace and faced Valkyr. His manner was subdued and in shock, as if he had just found out that he had been set up. "That wasn't me. I… I don't know _how_ to explain it, but–"

"No, you're a _liar_!" Valkyr said, cutting him off abruptly. Then he turned and strode away, his head held in both hands as he struggled with what he should do. He badly needed another cigarette, but he had none left. "Shit! _Shit_!" he cursed. He walked past his friend Raptor, who stood nearby quietly watching the drama unfold in front of him.

As Brom slowly sat down on the floor, hopeful that Valkyr had given up and would leave him alone, he felt a strong hand grip his forearm, dragging him back to his feet. When he looked up to see who had grabbed him, his optics widened in fear. It was Shadowstriker.

"_He_ may not have the ball bearings to kill you, but _I_ do," the Autobot said, his expression as cold as ice.

"No! Please, leave him alone!" Tia rushed to her partner, grabbing a hold of his free arm and pulling him back towards her, but it was pointless. Shadowstriker shoved her back with one hand, and she fell sprawling to the floor.

"Stay out of this!" Shadowstriker told her. "If _anyone's_ getting out of here alive, it's going to be _me_," he informed her, and then turned his attention back to Brom.

"Shit," Starscream uttered when he realized what Shadowstriker's intention was. "He's going to kill the Azurian." He took a few steps toward the Autobot flyer, a hand held out in front of him in warning. "Stop – this could be a trick!"

But Shadowstriker dismissed the seeker's advice, and with a callous, twisted expression he formed a fist and punched a hole straight into the robot's chassis, then ripped out his victim's power core. In a shower of sparks and spurting fuel from torn hoses, Brom dropped to his knees, his final dying thought being for Tia's safety, before the lights in his optics went dim.

Still holding the severed power core, Shadowstriker stepped back to allow the lifeless chassis to fall forward with a clang onto the floor at his feet. Then he dropped the unit beside Brom's head, turned and walked away. It had all happened so fast that no one could have stopped him.

A high-pitched, fuel curdling scream followed in his wake, as Tia collapsed in a heap beside her deactivated partner's frame. "_Nooooooo_!" she wailed. "Noooo-oooooo, Brom! _Nooooo-oooooo_!"

Starscream turned away from the scene of the crime in repulsion, not wanting to witness her suffering, and instead focused his gaze upon Shadowstriker, who had returned to stand beside Fisitron's horizontal form – the heavy-set Autobot had propped himself up on his elbows to watch Brom's execution. Scavenger had not been wrong about Shadowstriker; the Autobot flyer had just demonstrated before all their eyes and optics that he was a professional killer, a cold-blooded murderer, and that all he cared about was getting out of here alive – it didn't matter what he had to do or who he had to kill to do it.

Shadowstriker caught Starscream's gaze and gave him a small smile. Even as Tia threw herself at her partner's killer in her anguish, beating her fists uselessly against his silver chest, he simply ignored her, brushed her away as if she were nothing more than an annoying child. Her cries and screams of torment did not seem to register with him at all.

"You stupid fuck," Starscream said to him in a scornful voice, "do you have any idea what you've just done?"

Shadowstriker's grin widened. "I've just earned myself a ticket out of here," he said smugly, "which is more than I can say for the rest of you." He continued to grin in satisfaction, crossing his arms in front of him as he waited expectantly for the Game Master to deliver on his promised reward.


	4. 0400

_04.00_

* * *

Shadowstriker did not have to wait long to receive his reward – or, at least, for it to be offered to him; in return for killing the thief, he would be allowed the chance to leave this prison and so, as promised, the ceiling above them began to move, splitting in two and opening outwards from the middle as if it were a set of giant trapdoors. Directly above them, beyond the confines of the cube, was what appeared to be empty space, almost as black and starless as a void. The prison itself resembled a giant box with a lid.

"Wait, you can't leave me here!" Fisitron said in a panic, reaching desperately out to Shadowstriker with one hand while hauling himself up.

But the Autobot flyer was no longer interested in the well-being of his companion. His optics gazed up into the inky blackness of desolate space above them, a look of relief and elation overtaking his features. "It's a good thing I'll be able to fly out of here," he said, and then casually looked down at Fisitron. "I'd hate to think how you'd manage."

"Please, don't leave without me," Fisitron pleaded. "We're Autobots, remember? We've got to stick together."

Shadowstriker smiled calmly at him. "Ah, yes, you're right. You don't have to worry. I'll be sure to include you in my official report: 'Shadowstriker, Autobot Special Forces, barely escapes the mysterious Game. His comrade, Fisitron, fought valiantly to the bitter end – unfortunately, however, he died of complications from a wound he sustained during battle. Shadowstriker, devastated by the ordeal, did everything he could to save him.' How does that sound?" Then he laughed, and leaped up past the cuboid's opening in robot mode. "Bye, bye!" were his parting words, before he attempted to transform into his heavy bomber alt mode. It worked.

"No! No, Shadowstriker! Shadowstriker!" Fisitron called out after him.

Scavenger watched the Autobot activate his thrusters and point his nosecone upwards. "You could fly out of here, too, while there's a chance," he said quickly to Starscream.

Gazing up into the darkness, Starscream was frozen to the spot. He was tempted to follow after Shadowstriker, desperately wanting to grab this opportunity to escape and get the slag out of here, never to return, but two things kept him from transforming into his F-15 Eagle jet mode and disappearing into the blackness above: his conscience, and his common sense.

"Starscream?" Scavenger prompted.

"No," the seeker quickly replied. "No, not yet; we don't know what's out there. It's too dangerous to risk it. Besides, we're leaving together, or not at all."

Starscream instinctively grabbed Scavenger's arm, pulling him further away from the center of the room, as if it was going to help protect them somehow. They both watched Shadowstriker's form diminish in size as it took off and soared upwards towards freedom, swallowed by the silence.

But only a mere few seconds later, Shadowstriker reappeared above them, and then he was falling straight back down towards them in robot mode. He landed with a chassis-jarring thud in the middle of the floor and remained there, face down and motionless. A few seconds later, the trap-door ceiling closed over them again, sealing them all inside the cuboid prison once more.

For several long moments no one dared move or speak a word, until Tia carefully picked herself up and walked over to stand above Shadowstriker's stricken form. She slowly bent down closer, reached out to touch the back of his head, which was turned away from her. With a quick, sudden tug she turned his frame over and jumped back a step.

The flyer's blue optics were still emitting a glow, which meant that he was still alive, but his expression was twisted in one of utter despair and horror. He suddenly cried out in agony, and also in rage at having been tricked. "I can't move! Someone help me!" His desperate pleas were utterly agonizing. "I can't move! I can't move!"

Fisitron stared in quiet shock and disbelief at what had just befallen his Autobot companion, though he made no attempts to help him. Even if he had had the capability to do so, he found himself unwilling.

"Holy _shit_!" Valkyr cried out, moving ever closer towards insanity. "Fuck, oh fuck! What the fuck?!" He backed himself up against a wall and slid down it in despair, grabbing his hair in his hands. "We're fucked. We're all fucked! None of us is getting out of here alive!"

The others ignored him, though their own desperation increased with each passing second, except Tia's; she seemed to be completely oblivious of everyone around her now, except for the Autobot who was sprawled, helpless, on the floor in front of her – the very same Autobot who had killed her partner without even an inkling of remorse.

Starscream stepped silently towards her, watching her carefully, before glancing down and kneeling beside the Autobot. "What happened out there?" he asked.

However, Shadowstriker seemed to completely ignore him, showing no sign that he was even aware of the Decepticon. "Help me, please. I can't move," he continued to beg.

The seeker bent closer and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders, forcing him to acknowledge his presence. "What happened out there? Tell me!" he demanded.

Shadowstriker's blue optics finally met Starscream's determined gaze – the coldness of the Autobot's conscience, despite his fear, still evident in them. "Why should I tell you anything? Fuck off, Decepticon."

Starscream held the other's gaze for a few moments longer, then decided he wasn't worth it and released his grip with a hard shove, standing up again beside Tia. "Stupid bastard," he said disgustedly.

Tia glanced at him briefly, looking scared and doubtful, and then a new message appeared on the wall directly in front of her.

_Tia,_

_Shadowstriker deserves to die for what he did to Brom._

Tia stared at the message on the wall for a long time. Her expression slowly turned into one of bitterness, as if all of the grief and turmoil that she had just experienced over her recent loss had simply dissolved into an invisible cloud, only to be replaced by a cold and calculating desire for revenge.

"Tia?" Starscream said, aware that she could all too easily be pushed over the edge. Slowly, she turned to acknowledge him but said nothing, only offered him the chance to speak. "Tia, if you kill him you'll be playing right into their hands," he warned her.

"He's right, Tia. Don't do it," another voice called out to her from across the room in anguish. She realized that it had belonged to Valkyr, but she purposely ignored it. It seemed that her mind was already made up.

She stepped forwards, then kneeled and bent closer to Shadowstriker, watching his face with eerie calmness. When he realized who was looking down at him, he became fearful.

"Tia? What-what are you doing? What's happening? Tia? Somebody, answer me! What's going on?" The downed flyer was not able to turn his head to read the message on the wall, so he was unaware of it. What he _was_ aware of, however, was that in his vulnerable state Tia could quite easily take her revenge on him for what he'd done to Brom, and it was this thought that he now feared. "Tia, I-I didn't mean to kill him, I promise–" he tried, but all he received for his efforts was a strike across the cheek. She had hit him hard enough that his lip began to trickle energon.

"Somebody, help me! Fisitron? Get her away from me! I'll give you anything you want, just help me, please! I'll double the reward, anything, just don't let her touch me! How does two million credits sound? I'll have two million credits transferred directly to your account just as soon as we're out of here, I swear to you! Fisitron? Answer me!"

But Shadowstriker may as well have been pleading with a ghost; Fisitron wasn't interested in making a deal with him, not after he had tried to leave here without him.

Tia slowly stood up and looked around at the walls and ceiling. Then she cried out in a fearful yet determined voice. "How?" She waited for a reply, hoping that the Game Master would answer her. "How do I kill him? Please, I don't know how!" She ignored Shadowstriker's continued pleas, begging for her to stop. In the background, Valkyr no longer bothered to try and talk her out of it.

When she received no reply after a minute, she gave up, turned and sat down quietly in an empty corner of the room, away from the others. Shadowstriker's intakes worked heavily, as he tried to figure out exactly what was going on. After a long moment, when nothing further seemed to be happening, he began to hope that Tia had given up on the idea of killing him.

Everyone in the room fell silent for a long while; even Shadowstriker, lying on the floor immobile, stopped asking for help. Then Tia abruptly got up again and strode over to Fisitron, who was sitting against the wall. "You – you're an Autobot, just like him, right?" she said, pointing to Shadowstriker in the middle of the floor. Fisitron slowly turned his head to gaze up at her. He simply shrugged. "Will you help me?" she continued.

"Help you how?" Fisitron replied with a quizzical expression. "Can't you see I'm in no condition to help anyone, lady-bot?"

She continued to look at him determinedly, and then dropped her voice lower. "He _killed_ my Brom!" she suddenly blurted, her face contorted in pain, still pointing at the stricken flyer. "Oh, please, if you could only help me, that's all I ask."

He looked away from her uncertainly. Her grief and torment were difficult to bear. "How exactly do you expect me to help you, lady? You want me to kill him for you?"

She gave him a long, hard stare before bowing her head. When she looked up at him again, he gave her a weary sigh, and then looked over at Shadowstriker. The flyer was helpless in his current condition, but he wasn't critical. He could be repaired – _if_ he could get out of here.

"Please!" Tia begged, pleading with him. "He took my Brom away from me!"

He could feel her intense pain and grief, and suddenly felt the urge to want to help her, offer her some peace if he was able. "You'll become a killer, just like him. Do you really want to have that on your conscience?"

But she was adamant. "Please, I don't care anymore. I have nothing else to live for now."

Then he shook his head. "I'm sorry, I can't do it for you," he said, making his decision. As she began to withdraw back into herself in disappointment, looking down at the floor, he added, "Look – I can tell you how to do it, lady, but that's all. You want him dead? You gotta find a way to do it yourself." When she looked back up at him with a renewed determination in her optics, he continued in a low voice. "What the hell, right? You may as well help put him out of his misery now. It won't make any difference. We're all going to die in here, anyway."

As Fisitron proceeded to tell her how to deactivate Shadowstriker, she listened with a chilly detachedness that seemed almost eerie to Starscream as he watched from a distance.

"Tia, don't do it," Starscream found himself calling out to her, moving closer towards her. "It's exactly what–"

Upon hearing his voice she spun around, giving him a threatening glare. "Stay away! _Just stay out of this_!" she screamed at him, so loudly that he thought her voice would pierce through the very walls. The clingy, vulnerable partner that she had demonstrated less than an hour ago was gone, replaced by a ruthless, psychotic killer, intent only on revenge.

Even as he stepped back again in astonishment, he knew that it was pointless to try to stop her or change her mind. She would make sure that she got her revenge – if not now, then later – and would never stop trying until Shadowstriker had paid for the crime with his life, this much was clear.

Starscream watched as Tia slowly moved away from Fisitron and approached Shadowstriker's helpless form, opened up his chest panel, and carefully examined his internal circuitry, all the while completely ignoring his renewed pleas for her to stop. He recognized what she was doing, and supposed that Shadowstriker probably deserved what was coming to him; regardless, this whole situation was something that the Game Master had probably planned from the very start. This entire Game, he realized, was all just one big, though deadly, set-up, and he wanted no part of it.

When Shadowstriker's vocal protests suddenly became still, he knew that Tia had permanently deactivated him. But that was the easy part; he could still be revived unless she either damaged his brain module beyond repair, or extinguished his spark, but achieving either of those things would probably prove too difficult for her to accomplish on her own, particularly without weaponry, so he suspected that she would do the next best thing.

He continued to watch as Tia picked up Brom's power core, lifted it above her head, and slammed it down hard right on top of the flyer's face. Then she repeated the action, beating his face with the heavy object a second time, and then a third, and a fourth, until the smooth outer covering of his face became dented and distorted under the pressure, tearing and twisting with each blow until his features were unrecognizable. She carried out her revenge with surprising strength and callousness that made Starscream look away, though he couldn't block out the sound that Brom's power core made each time it came down hard upon the Autobot's face. She repeated this over and over, relentlessly pummelling his face with the blunt object until his visage was a shredded mess, the energon-stained internal circuitry poking out just beneath his caved-in skull where his nose had once been. Finally, after several long seconds of non-stop bludgeoning, she stopped, heavily intaking air, and dropped the still intact power core to the floor beside her. The room was eerily still and silent; there were no more cries for help, no more protests from the flyer. No one else spoke, or dared approach Tia.

She bent down again to peer into what used to be a face, and ran her fingers along the torn edges of his cheek. She began to hum a tune, ever so softly, singing some haunting chant to herself as if she were grieving the loss of a newly forged that had died before reaching maturity. After a long while, she quietly stepped away from the inert frame, pulling her energon-stained hand away from the flyer's nasal cavity and mouth and bringing her fingertips to her lips, tasting his spilled fuel.

Cyrus walked closer towards her, overcoming his apprehension with bravery. "Tia, you're going to be okay," he reassured her, resting a comforting hand on her arm.

Slowly, Tia turned to acknowledge him, as if he had awoken her out of some morbid fantasy. Then she looked down at Shadowstriker again as if she had no memory or understanding of what had happened to him. "Have… have you seen Brom?" Looking back at Cyrus, she spoke in an alluringly sweet voice, devoid of any heartache or grief. "If you see him, could you tell him I'm looking for him?" she said, smiling at the thought, and then turned and walked away, returning to sit back down on the floor in her corner of the room.

"And here I thought those two Autobots were insane," Starscream said, shaking his head in bewilderment as he walked back to sit beside Scavenger. When his friend gave him no hint of any response for a long time, he prompted, "Scav?"

The Constructicon slowly turned his head to acknowledge him. "If you'd have taken my advice you'd have ended up like him," he confessed, nodding slightly towards what remained of Shadowstriker.

"What are you talking about? What advice?" Starscream asked, genuinely puzzled.

"When I said you should try to fly out of here, after Shadowstriker."

"Oh." He understood now what his companion was beating himself up over. The last thing he needed right now was for him to blame himself for any of this. He shook his head in mild exasperation. "Forget about it. Really. You couldn't have known, none of us could have." Starscream leaned his head back against the wall and stared up at the plain blue-grey ceiling above. "So, Game Master, now what?" he said softly, not looking forward to the next stage of the Game. He longed more than anything to get out of here and be reunited with the other Decepticons. Perhaps they were already searching for the two of them right now, he hoped with all his spark.


	5. 0300

_03.00_

* * *

"Hey, there's another message," Starscream heard Valkyr say, breaking his private contemplations, and the seeker looked up to see another moving holo-image being played on the wall. This time it revealed a second part to the mystery heist, showing Brom passing the stolen green bars to Cyrus. In turn, the Rigelian was stashing them inside a black suitcase.

Valkyr picked himself up from where he'd been seated on the floor, his scrutiny now focused on Cyrus, and then he laughed in ridicule. "Well, what have we here? Why, I think we got ourselves a dirty cop!" At least this latest revelation offered him a distraction from their imminent deaths. At the same time, Tia had walked over to Cyrus, examining him coldly.

He looked at both of them in surprise, but then laughed it off. "It hardly matters anymore, now does it?"

"How _dare_ you!" she hissed at him.

Cyrus' thin veil of cheerfulness was quickly discarded as he looked back at her, a hint of dread in his eyes. "What are you talking about, Tia? I haven't done anything to you."

Her feminine, light blue frame stepped closer to Cyrus, her accusing optics menacing. She tilted her head sideways at him, as a pet dog might do when straining to comprehend its master. "If it wasn't for you, my Brom wouldn't have been forced to steal," she said in a calm voice, before shouting abruptly and pointing a finger at him. "_You_ made him do it!"

Cyrus jumped back at her sudden anger and accusation towards him, shaking his head in bewilderment. "I didn't force him to do anything. You're crazy, lady."

"You're a _liar_!" she screamed, inching closer towards him. He backed away and circled around her, but she spun around to catch his gaze.

He held out his hands in an attempt to calm her down. "Look, I swear to you, I had nothing to do with your mech's involvement in the job, okay? In fact, I barely spoke to him at all. The whole thing was on a need-to-know basis, quickly in, quickly out. Don't ask any questions. I never saw Brom again after that."

But she wasn't interested in his explanations. All she knew was that Brom was now dead, and that anyone who had anything to do with his death had to die as well. She rushed towards him, her hands reaching for his throat, and he jumped out of her way just in time. Then she began to stalk him like a hunter after its prey, circling around him and tracking his every step. As he moved across to the opposite side of the room, the two Decepticons got up from their spots on the floor. Cyrus backed up against the wall as Tia closed in on him, intent on crushing his head in like she had done to Shadowstriker.

Once again, Starscream tried to make her listen to reason. "Tia, if you kill him I won't be able to find out more about the heist." He moved closer behind her, one hand held out in front of him in a gesture for her to stop what she was doing. "Let me talk to him first."

She spun her head around to acknowledge him, her expression set into an angry frown. "It doesn't matter anymore," she replied, a faraway look in her optics. "What does it matter anymore? Leave me alone!" She turned back to Cyrus, who was holding both his hands up in a gesture of surrender. Even though she was physically much weaker compared to the Autobots, she could easily crush the life out of any organic if she wanted to, and Cyrus was well aware of this fact.

"Tia! You want to get out of here, don't you? I might be able to find a way out if you just let me question him!" Starscream told her, unperturbed. "Please," he added. He had little hope that what he had told her was true, but he had to try.

She hesitated, and then slowly took a step back, allowing Starscream to approach Cyrus. The ex-cop gave an audible sigh of relief, slowly brought his hands down to his sides.

"Thanks," he said, glancing at Starscream.

"Don't thank me just yet," he said. "I suggest that you start talking."

Cyrus furtively glanced at Tia, afraid that she might change her mind at any moment and decide to kill him anyway, simply for saying something out of place or for looking at her the wrong way. "Look, the truth is I got wind that there was a big job planned… so I went in undercover–"

"_Liar_!" Tia screamed at him suddenly, lunging towards him again, but this time Starscream held her back. She struggled fiercely to escape his grasp until he pushed her away, releasing her, and she stumbled backwards several steps.

"I'm not done with him yet," Starscream told her, before turning his attention back to Cyrus. "Tell me everything you know. What was in the vault, whom did it belong to, who arranged the job, who else was involved – everything."

"Like I said before, I didn't know Brom until right before we pulled it off," Cyrus explained, as Starscream shot Tia a warning look upon the mention of Brom. "I don't exactly know what those green bars are, I swear. I figure they must be something rare and valuable to you mechanoids, but I don't know what they are."

"Those green bars – whom did they belong to?" Starscream repeated.

"Honestly? I don't know. It's the reason why I went undercover in the first place," Cyrus answered him. "I was hoping it would lead me to the head honcho of the whole operation."

"Were you successful?" Starscream asked him.

Cyrus shook his head. "No, but I must've blown my cover because things started to get real scary after the heist."

"Where are those bars now?"

Cyrus shrugged. "I don't know."

Starscream turned away and paced a few steps in thought. "Who was your contact?" he asked finally.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Your contact – for the job. You must have had a contact."

After Starscream had asked him this question, there was a shift in Cyrus' behaviour. It was subtle, but it was there. _Fear_. "I – I didn't have a contact. Max knew someone, he…" He trailed off, glancing around the room nervously. "We got in through him, I don't know."

"Too bad Max is dead. He could have told us."

Fisitron turned away at the mention of Max. There was a pause as Starscream glanced around the room, observing carefully everybody's reaction, but especially Cyrus' body language. There was something the man was keeping from them. Some vital clue, perhaps? He wasn't sure.

"You're lying," Starscream finally said. "About your contact."

Cyrus became defensive. "Look, I don't see what any of this has to do with you, or her, or anyone else here," he started, indicating towards Tia and the others. "Max is dead! And so will the rest of us be, if you don't stop asking so many questions and help us find a way out of here."

"Believe it or not, that's what I'm trying to do." Starscream noticed that Tia had calmed down somewhat from her need to take out her revenge on Cyrus, as she started to retreat back to her corner. Cyrus noticed the same thing; he leaned back against the wall and slowly slid down to the floor, quietly relieved.

"What were you doing before we got here – a few days ago, a week ago?" Starscream asked Scavenger privately several minutes later, making sure no one else could hear them.

The Constructicon shrugged. "A few different things. Why do you ask?" he replied, giving him a curious look.

"It's just that, so far we know that at least four people in here have – or _had_ – something to do with that heist in some way; Tia and Brom, and Cyrus and Max," he elaborated. "So, it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that maybe the rest of us have, as well – even if we don't _know_ it."

"It's possible, I suppose," Scavenger replied, reflecting on the possibility. "Though I don't remember doing anything recently that might be connected. Do you?"

"No." Starscream fell silent for a long while, before he spoke again. "Is it just me or did that vault's design look familiar?"

Scavenger slowly nodded. "You know, now that I think about it… it reminds me of the vaults owned by Autobot elites – you know, the wealthy ones. Now that I think about it."

"_Yes_." Now they were starting to get somewhere.

"Definitely not one of ours, though. I'd have recognized it straight away if it was." Scavenger's gaze met Starscream's in a moment of mutual realization. Sharing the same thought, they both glanced towards Fisitron. "Do you think he knows anything about it?"

"Possibly. The Autobots must have something to do with all this as well. Why else would those two have been brought here?" Starscream responded. He glanced across at the surviving Autobot, and abruptly started to walk towards him.

"Wait – where are you going?" His friend was reluctant to let him go; he grabbed a hold of his arm, keeping close by his side.

"We won't know for sure unless we ask him," the seeker replied confidently.

"What if he doesn't want to tell you anything?"

Starscream stopped momentarily to reassure him. "Then, I'm sure you'll come up with some clever way to make him tell _you_." He gave Scavenger a teasing smile, and then approached Fisitron, standing over him with his arms crossed.

"What do you want? Didn't I tell you to fuck off before?" Fisitron greeted him.

"Now, now, we only want to ask you a few questions," Starscream said, unperturbed by Fisitron's blatant contempt towards him. The mech looked at him as though he'd lost his mind, but he said nothing further so Starscream continued. "That vault we saw in the holo-image. Would you happen to know anything about it?"

"No. Why the heck would I?" Fisitron responded adamantly.

"Maybe because it looks like it could belong to an Autobot?" the seeker answered him.

"Look, I don't know anything about it, okay? Now leave me alone." That was all that he was willing to say on the subject.

"So, what do you think?" Scavenger asked as the two of them walked away again, outside of the Autobot's hearing range.

"Well, I think he knows a lot more about that heist than what he's willing to reveal, and I'm almost certain he was involved, somehow," Starscream said, before glancing around the room. "We know Cyrus was involved…" He looked towards Valkyr, and then Raptor, who hadn't spoken a single word since the very beginning of this whole ordeal. "But we don't know anything about those two – _yet_."

There was a long pause in their conversation, until Scavenger looked up suddenly in realization of something.

"What? What is it?" Starscream prompted, noticing the other's look of apprehension.

"It's… it's probably nothing," Scavenger said quietly, almost whispering, afraid that the Game Master would listen in and not like what he had to say.

"Tell me, anyway. It could be a something," Starscream encouraged.

Scavenger looked uneasy. "Okay. Well… you know how you asked what I was doing before I got here?"

"Yes?"

"I just remembered something that happened, maybe a week or two ago – maybe a bit earlier. I didn't give it much thought at the time, but I think it _might_ have had something to do with the heist."

Starscream, well aware that they would probably attract the Game Master's attention by talking about the heist, dropped his voice to a whisper. "Go on."

"It happened just before Hexagine was murdered – it was all over the news. Apparently, _someone_ had broken into his private safe and had reportedly stolen a full case of cybertite," Scavenger told him.

"Cybertite?" Starscream repeated in surprise. Cybertite was an extremely rare and valuable mineral known to be found only on Cybertron; it was so rare, in fact, that it was widely believed that only a small, finite amount of it existed in the hands of a few private investors. "And you think those green bars might be the stolen cybertite?" he considered thoughtfully. With Scavenger's help, he was starting to put more pieces of the puzzle together.

Scavenger shrugged. "I don't know. But the thing is… as far as I _do_ know, that stolen cybertite was never recovered." He paused for a brief moment. "A few days after Hexagine's assassination, I was scanning the area just outside the city, and I intercepted a message that contained a set of co-ordinates. I don't know anything more about the message, or if it has to do with anything."

Starscream nodded, turned away to contemplate what he'd just learned. "Hm. Funny you should mention that. I was given a set of co-ordinates for my team to investigate, but all we found was a lump of rock – a small asteroid out in the middle of nowhere. At the time, I thought it was a decoy of some sort, but now…" He turned to face Scavenger again. "Now, I'm not so sure."

"Wait, do you think…" But Scavenger didn't get time to speculate on a theory, as a new message appeared on the wall opposite them. All heads in the room turned to look up at it.

_Cyrus has a secret._

Cyrus jumped up in a panic. "Oh, come _on_! This is a _trick_! Can't you all see it?" he yelled out to everyone in the room. Tia began to slowly stand up and make her way over to him, hell bent on wringing the secret out of him, even if he had to die for it. However, Starscream wasn't about to let her get her way so easily, no matter how much she yelled and screamed at him. Even as she tried to push past him, he held her back with a hand.

"Get out of my way!" she screamed.

"Stay back," Starscream commanded her, easily pushing her away.

Cyrus stood behind Starscream like he was a personal shield, laughing at Tia nervously and shouting back at her in a mocking tone, "Ha! _Bitch_!"

Once Tia had stopped attempting to reach for Cyrus, Starscream turned his attention to him instead. He pushed Cyrus roughly up against the wall and held him there so he couldn't move. "Start talking," he demanded quickly, up close.

"I _swear_! I don't have any secrets–"

"Your contact – he's here, isn't he? Answer me," Starscream persisted, speaking in a low voice so that the others couldn't overhear. "Who was it? Valkyr? The Autobot? Tell me."

"What – _no_!" Cyrus struggled to get away from his grasp, but Starscream was too strong. He shook his head vehemently. "I don't know anyone here." After a few more tense moments, the seeker abruptly let go of him and he staggered forwards, catching his breath.

Starscream cast his gaze around the room, observing everyone else with a careful optic. If Cyrus was keeping a secret, he had to find out what it was…

He stepped forwards and approached Valkyr, who looked up at him from where he still sat on the floor. "Get up," he ordered him. When Valkyr made no move to do so, he repeated, "I said, get up, you piece of shit!"

That did the trick. Valkyr jumped up in anger, showing no fear of the Decepticon and ready to teach him a lesson. "The fuck you think you are, huh?" He stepped towards the seeker and gave him a strong push. Starscream barely flinched, but allowed Valkyr to take his fury out on him.

"I say you had something to do with that heist. That's why you're here, with the rest of us," Starscream told him, keeping his voice even.

"Hey, _I'm_ not the one with the secret," Valkyr yelled back at him, and pointed to Cyrus. "_He_ is! You dumb fuck!"

"You want a piece of me? Is that what you want?" Starscream beckoned him, motioning with both his hands. "Well, come and get it!"

The switchblade knife reappeared in Valkyr's hand, and he held it out in front of him threateningly. Then, with an angered cry of frustration and outrage, the Xylanthian lunged at Starscream with the knife, aiming for the seeker's face and neck. Starscream was not sure whether Valkyr actually realized that he had no chance in a fight against a Decepticon, but he played along, regardless; he had an ulterior motive for his actions. He dodged the knife with ease, which only made Valkyr angrier.

"Well, since we're both going to die in here, anyway," Valkyr growled, and swung his right fist towards Starscream, who simply ducked to avoid it, and then ducked again as a left hook sliced through the air towards his head. When Valkyr realized that he wasn't going to hit his target easily, he lunged towards the seeker, with the intention of tackling him to the floor.

And Starscream didn't resist. Instead of knocking Valkyr unconscious with a well-aimed strike, he allowed the man to wrestle him to the ground. Then, as Valkyr grappled with him, attempting to pin Starscream beneath him with his heavy weight, his muscles bulging with the effort beneath his leather jacket, all he managed to do was tumble and roll around on the floor a few times, until eventually Starscream emerged victorious, holding Valkyr down flat on his back, one elbow pressed down against the man's neck.

"Get _off of me_!" Valkyr gasped, struggling to break free. He was expecting Starscream to break his neck at any moment, as he realized the folly of his mistake; challenging the Decepticon to a fight had been like issuing his own death sentence.

But then Starscream bent down closer to him, using his superior position as a guise, and whispered harshly in his ear, "How much do you know about Raptor?"

Valkyr stopped wrestling against him for a moment, baffled by his question. "What?" he asked.

"Just shut up and listen for a change. I think there's more to him than meets the eye. He might be our ticket out of here, if we play this smart," Starscream spoke quickly, ensuring that only Valkyr could hear him.

"Look, if this is some sort of trick–" Valkyr started, staring back at the red optics in doubt and confusion.

"It's no trick!" Starscream said in a raspy, shrill voice as he glanced up quickly to make sure none of the others suspected his ploy, and then said aloud for their benefit, "I should kill you right now!" When Valkyr said nothing further, still trying to figure out whether or not the seeker could be trusted, Starscream added quietly, "I'm going to release you now. Just think about what I said," and with that, he let the man go, standing up and walking away without bothering to look back. "Try something like that again, and next time you won't be so lucky!" he added aloud, for show.


	6. 0200

_02.00_

* * *

After his unexpected confrontation with Starscream, Valkyr's behaviour changed. He paced the room nervously for the next twenty minutes, not speaking to anyone but occasionally stealing a glance at the two Decepticons, and then at Raptor, who continued to stand as still as a statue in one corner of the room. The visor that covered his eyes made Valkyr feel uneasy. When he eventually stopped pacing, he looked up at the ceiling and let out a long sigh. His nervousness wasn't helped by the fact that he needed a cigarette. Finally, he walked casually across the room to lean against a spot on the wall closest to Starscream and folded his arms across his large chest, acting disinterested.

"You're right; if we're going to find a way out of here, we should work together," he said while the seeker had his back to him.

Starscream turned to face him, and then scanned the man's body language for clues. "I'm glad you've finally decided to come to your senses, Valkyr," he replied, keeping his red optics focused intently upon him. "So, any _suggestions_?" he said carefully, speaking in code.

Valkyr exhaled a lungful of air, shaking his head as if overwhelmed by the prospect of their task. "I've only known him a short while. Said he wanted to be friends, offered me a job a couple weeks ago. Said all I had to do was pick up a case and deliver it to him at the right time and place. That's it – just don't ask any questions… I get paid ten grand, and that was supposed to be the end of it." He spoke in a low voice, averting Starscream's gaze. He was careful not to utter Raptor's name.

"And was it?" the seeker asked. "The end of it?"

The man shrugged. "Sure. Never saw him again after that. But then I find myself in here with him."

"Did you recognize the case? The one in the holo-images?" Starscream asked him.

Valkyr rubbed his chin nervously. "Might have been the same one. But, like I said, it wasn't my business to ask what was in it. I just had to deliver it."

"Hm."

When Starscream said nothing further, Valkyr glanced at him. "Why, you think he knows something about this bullshit Game?"

There was a brief pause as Starscream considered his response. "I think… he knows a lot more than what you think he does."

Valkyr nodded, looked up at the ceiling. "Okay. So what about Cyrus?"

"What about him?"

"You know his little secret?"

The man in question seemed to have his attention focused on Tia. "Yes, I believe I do," Starscream replied quietly. Valkyr looked at him again, unfolding his arms as he waited for an explanation. So Starscream offered it to him. "Your so-called friend? He was the contact."

"Contact?"

"Yes. Cyrus' contact for the job."

Realizing what Starscream had just suggested, Valkyr quickly spun to glance at Raptor across the room, an expression of surprise and apprehension on his face. He was about to stride over towards the silent cyborg, intent on questioning him about his involvement in their current situation, but Starscream grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"_Don't_ – unless you want to get yourself killed," he told Valkyr.

Valkyr tried to shrug his hand off. "I can take him–"

"No, you can't!" Starscream was adamant. "He's far more dangerous than he looks. And he's probably got functioning weapons." His words caused Valkyr to falter. Starscream stepped around him so that he was blocking Raptor's view of him.

"How would you know that?" Valkyr's suspicion made him look back at the Decepticon with sudden fear.

"I don't know for certain – I'm guessing." When Starscream received a blank stare, he continued, drawing close to Valkyr. "Think about it; how else do you think Max got hold of that gun?" He nodded towards the blaster that still lay discarded on the floor, the same one that Max had used to shoot Fisitron with earlier.

Valkyr's expression became puzzled, and he shook his head dismissively. "Nah, Max probably just had it on him… or maybe the Game Master gave it to him somehow. Fuck, I don't know–"

"_No_! All our own weapons have been deactivated," Starscream said, indicating all four Cybertronians in the room, "and, besides, Max couldn't have had that particular weapon on him when he was brought here."

"Oh, and why do you say that?" Valkyr asked curiously.

"Because, _one_: it's a Cybertronian laser blaster, and _two_," Starscream emphasized, "only a small number of Cybertronians would own one like it. Isn't that right, Scavenger?" He indicated for the Constructicon to check the weapon with a nod of his head.

His Decepticon companion, who had been standing behind Valkyr while keeping a watchful optic on the rest of the inmates, looked back at the seeker uncertainly for a moment, but then he walked to the middle of the room and quietly picked up Max's discharged weapon to examine it before putting it back down again. When he returned to stand beside them, he was able to verify what Starscream had said.

"You're right. It looks like it could belong to the Elite Guard, actually. But how'd you know?" Scavenger asked in amazement.

"I didn't. I guessed. But what I'd be asking now is who supplied it?"

Scavenger considered the possibilities for a moment, and then suddenly saw what Starscream was seeing, as he fit more pieces of the puzzle together. He turned to glance across at the large Autobot. "Fisitron."

Valkyr started to realize what they were implying; Raptor was extremely dangerous, and could not be trusted.

But now, he was coming straight for them. "Holy fucking _shit_!" Valkyr exclaimed suddenly.

"Yes, it's–" Starscream began, amused at Valkyr's choice of expression, but when he felt the man grip his upper arms with both hands and shake him furiously, before pointing to something behind him, Starscream spun around, alerted to some as yet unrealized danger.

"Starscream, watch out!" Scavenger said, grabbing a hold of Valkyr and dragging him to safety.

Raptor was striding straight towards Starscream, and in his right hand was an energized sword shimmering with blue energy. The Decepticon barely had time to leap out of the way as the sword came down hard in a broad, vertical stroke. It missed the top of his head by mere inches, and as the point of the sword impacted the cold, metallic floor of the prison, it produced a shower of sparks. It became quite clear to them that Raptor did not fight like a man, but fought with the strength and accuracy of a machine.

"Oh, shit!" Starscream repeated, straightening himself as he prepared to face his newest opponent. Raptor adjusted his trajectory to match Starscream's movements and then thrust the sword at him again, this time with the intention of slicing his arm off. By now, there was a captivated audience as Tia and Cyrus both edged closer to watch the battle, though they were careful to keep their distance. Fisitron also turned his attention to the latest development with interest.

Valkyr tried to pull away from Scavenger's grip, but the Decepticon excavator held him firm. "There's nothing you can do," Scavenger informed him, outwardly calm but inwardly concerned for his friend.

Starscream was manoeuvring in a wide arc around Raptor, being careful to avoid Max's corpse, as well as Brom's and Shadowstriker's remains – a grim reminder to all that this deadly game was all too real. "Raptor… this isn't necessary. Just put that sword away and I won't have to kill you," he said slowly and deliberately, more a stalling tactic rather than a promise.

The cyborg gave him a murderous sneer, and spoke for the first time since they'd met. "You _will_ die, Decepticon," he stated, his cold voice conveying his objective without a shadow of a doubt. Then he lunged forwards with two long strides, his sword held out before him like a lance.

Starscream side-stepped to avoid it, but then fell flat on his back without warning. Frantically, he propped himself up on his elbows to look around, and saw that Fisitron had reached out with a hand to grab a hold of his right leg, causing him to trip over. He didn't have time to retaliate; he kicked the Auobot's hand away and proceeded to pick himself up, but he was too late.

The seeker felt the sword's energized blade pierce through his outer armour and embed itself into the upper left side of his chest, and he let out a cry of pain as its searing energy shot through his entire system like a bolt of lightning. "S-stop… stop," he barely managed, one hand wrapping feebly around the blade in a vain effort to try and pull it out. He felt another excruciating jolt of pain as Raptor forcefully pulled the sword out of him. "Ahhhhh!" He struggled to get away, dragging himself backwards along the floor, but it was no use; Raptor stood over him, grinning, his sword held high above his head as he prepared to finish him off.

Energon escaped from the stab wound and seeped through his fingers as he pressed a hand against the wound, his other hand held out in front of him in a futile attempt to ward off his attacker. And then, just as Starscream thought he was going to succumb to this cruel game of death over life, Raptor slowly lowered the sword and tilted his head to the side, as if he were suddenly contemplating something that fascinated him.

"But you will not die yet. I always save the best for last," Raptor said, then stepped back and quietly walked away.

Scavenger instinctively took a few steps back as Raptor walked past him, though the cyborg gave him no hint of acknowledgment whatsoever. Nevertheless, the Constructicon kept his gaze locked onto him, and watched as Raptor approached Cyrus. As the sword slowly came up over the man's head, Cyrus' eyes went wide with fear and shock.

"Oh, no… no, no, no, no, no–"

Cyrus' panicked, shrill voice was suddenly shut down, replaced by a sickening, slicing sound as his head was hacked clean off his body. The severed head was flung a few feet in the air with the force of the gruesome action, before it smacked down onto the smooth, grey floor with a thud. It rolled a few more feet, leaving a trail of glistening blood, until it finally came to rest near Max's cold corpse.

The headless body, still spurting fresh blood from severed arteries in its neck, slumped to the floor before Raptor in a limp heap.

"No more secrets," Raptor said without remorse, to no one in particular.

By now, Valkyr had ceased trying to get away from Scavenger in an effort to help stop Raptor; after witnessing Cyrus' murder in front of his own eyes, he had realized with horror just how dangerous the cyborg actually was, and instead had refused to let go of the Decepticon for dear life. His tough bravado had very quickly been replaced by sheer terror, and he was acutely aware of just how pertinent Scavenger's advice to him had been. "Oh, fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck…" was all that was able to come out of his mouth.

As soon as he was sure that Raptor had stopped his attack, at least momentarily, Scavenger pulled away from Valkyr and, without saying a word, sprinted towards Starscream. For a brief moment, he wasn't sure what to do as he stared down at the damage to Starscream's upper torso, but when the seeker reached out for him, extending a hand out, he bent down and took hold of his arm.

"Help me up," Starscream told him.

Scavenger did as he was asked and helped him to his feet. It was clear that Starscream had been severely weakened by the sword attack, and was not able to stand without his support. "Are you…?"

"I'll be fine," Starscream reassured him, downplaying his injury a little. Valkyr approached the injured seeker from his other side to help support him, and then he and Scavenger helped move him to an empty corner of the room.

"Let me take a look at that," Scavenger offered, once Starscream had lowered himself down to rest on the floor, his back leaning against the wall.

Starscream shook his head, brushed his help away. "No… I'll be fine." He was drawing in air heavily, and he spoke with difficulty, his voice strained. "It's more important that we just get out of here."

Valkyr crouched beside them, glancing furtively behind him at Raptor. "If it weren't for that Autobot… you would have had a chance."

When Starscream glanced over at Fisitron, who was propped up against the wall on the opposite side of the room, the Autobot was looking smugly back at him. He must have been aware they were talking about him, because he suddenly called out, "Raptor should have finished you off, Decepticon. Maybe next time."

"Think you can take him? Raptor, I mean?" Valkyr then asked in a low voice.

The seeker decided to ignore the Autobot, and instead looked up at Valkyr. "Yes… at least, I could have." There was a pause, and then Starscream changed the course of the conversation slightly. "That weapon that Max used on him? It's no ordinary blaster. It was designed to kill mechs like us with just a single shot," Starscream explained, straining to speak. "Like Scavenger said, it's used exclusively by the Elite Guard."

Valkyr looked back at the Autobot in question, and wondered what they were going to do about him. Should they just let him die? "The Elite Guard?" he looked back at the two Decepticons inquisitively.

His answer came from Scavenger. "Kind of like the Autobots' special ops division."

"Oh." Valkyr raised an eyebrow. "Okay." He glanced at Starscream's battle wound and noticed that the sword had been plunged straight through his chassis; the upper-left portion of the seeker's chest was smeared with energon, and there was minor sparking at the entry point. "Fuck him. What about you? I mean, are you gonna be okay?"

Starscream glanced down at his frame, winced at the sight of the damage he'd sustained from his brief confrontation with Raptor. "Fortunately, the sword missed any vital components," he said, but then refrained from saying anything further, allowing his automatic repair system to begin doing its job.

"Well, we've got to think of something before he tries to finish the job. The two of you are just about the only chance we've got left," Valkyr said, sharing his thoughts. "Well – that me and Tia have, anyway."

"Hm." Starscream was staring straight ahead, obviously deep in thought.

"What?"

"He's too fast, and strong. Without our weapons, and with this injury, Scavenger and I won't be able to take him down easily. We'll need to create a distraction." Starscream did not make eye contact with Valkyr as he spoke; he was too intent on trying to come up with a plan, as he watched Raptor closely. The cyborg stood by himself, motionless, in one corner of the room away from everyone else. The sword that he had used was no longer visible in his hand.

"A distraction? Okay. Like what?" Valkyr formed a fist and connected it to the open palm of his other hand.

Starscream turned his head to meet Valkyr's gaze. "Were I to hazard a guess, I'd say that he has the cybertite, or at least knows where it is," he said, instead of answering the man's question.

Valkyr rubbed the bridge of his nose in a puzzled expression. "Cybertite?"

"Oh. The stuff that was stolen from the vault – the stuff that was probably in the case you delivered," Starscream clarified.

The Xylanthian looked down at the floor in quiet realization. "Oh, shit. Okay." He glanced back at Raptor warily. "So you think he set this whole thing up?"

"Maybe." Starscream seemed doubtful about that idea. "Or, maybe he knows who's behind it."

"Like maybe he's working for 'em? Like he's an agent or something?" Valkyr received a resigned look from the Decepticon. No one knew for sure exactly who this Raptor was – only that he was hell-bent on winning this Game, and had no qualms about killing them all to do it, one by one. Valkyr clasped his hands together and took a deep breath, then released it slowly in an effort to center his thoughts. After a minute, he levelled his gaze with the two Decepticons' and nodded. "Okay. I think I can convince him to give me one of his weapons, or whatever he's got hidden inside his space suit."

Starscream gave him a genuinely surprised look, though he couldn't help but feel anxious for him. "How?"

"Well, we're supposed to be friends, right? Me and him," Valkyr began to explain, nodding surreptitiously at Raptor.

"But he's already seen you talking to us. If he thought you were on his side before, he probably doesn't anymore," Scavenger replied, raising a valid point.

"I know, I know… but I can probably fix that," Valkyr said quickly. "Look, I'm just going to need you two to trust me on this one, okay? Don't believe anything I'm about to do. Just go with it – I have to make it look good."

Scavenger said nothing further, while Starscream considered what he'd said for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Just try not to get yourself killed," he replied, without bothering to find out exactly what Valkyr had in mind.

The man gave them both a knowing nod, and then stood up. He moved back a few steps, pointing an accusing finger at them as he did so. "Ha! I knew it! I fucking knew it!" he suddenly yelled out, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Those two pieces of shit think _you_ have something to do with this fucked up game – can you fucking believe it?" He walked quickly back towards Raptor, meeting his visored gaze. The cyborg turned his head as he tracked Valkyr, though he seemed unsure of what to make of the man's sudden outburst. A moment later, they were standing together, shoulder-to-shoulder. "I sure fooled 'em, Raptor. I got 'em to tell me all their shit – stupid mother-fuckers." Valkyr laughed triumphantly, sharing his successful endeavour with Raptor. "What do you think about that, huh?"

There was a moment of tense silence as Raptor processed the validity of his latest claim, and for a second Valkyr imagined the energized sword being plunged straight into his heart. But then his fears were alleviated, as Raptor gave him a small nod. "Good," he answered simply.

Valkyr's face widened into a grin, and he clapped Raptor on the shoulder. "You know what I think? I think you and I ought to stick together, buddy. We make a great team." _Shit, don't overdo it, Valkyr_, he thought to himself.

Raptor cocked his head to the side, looking back at him curiously. His presence felt soulless. "What did you learn from them?" he queried Valkyr.

The Xylanthian thought quickly, determined to make his answer sound convincing. "Oh, man. They said something about cryolite? Or some shit, I don't know. And they think that _you_ were behind that heist – you know, how we were shown Brom and Cyrus stealing those green bars from that vault? Yeah – crazy, huh? They plan on killing you, by the way – first chance they get, so just watch your back, man. I don't trust those two Decepticons as far as I can fucking throw 'em."

Raptor must have bought his story because he said nothing further after that, and Valkyr didn't push it; he wanted to make things seem natural.


	7. 0100

_01.00_

* * *

Valkyr didn't have to wait too long for the right opportunity to present itself, though he wasn't aware of it straight away. It began when almost half hour later a new message appeared on the wall:

_The Decepticons know._

That was the entirety of the message, but it had been enough for Valkyr to make his next move. However, things did not turn out quite as he'd planned.

"Know? Know _what_?" Valkyr moved closer to the message on the wall, looking up at it. He heard a laugh coming from behind him, and he spun around to face Fisitron on the floor. Clearly, the Autobot thought something was funny. "What are you laughing at, ass-face?"

Fisitron ignored the man's hostility, and simply smiled up at him. "I knew those Decepti-creeps had something to do with all this. I knew it all along."

Valkyr wanted to tell the Autobot to shut up, but he had to remain calm and in control. "Oh, yeah?" He glanced quickly towards the maligned Decepticons across the room; Scavenger was watching his exchange with the Autobot, not moving much or saying anything, while Starscream seemed more focused on tending to his wound, rather than on him. "And you didn't have anything to do with it?"

Fisitron's smile faded somewhat, but he managed to maintain a cool head. "No. Why would I? I have no idea where we are, or how I got here, truth be told."

"So, you have no idea about that vault we saw?" Valkyr said, motioning with his hand toward the wall. "You know, it's funny, but it sure as hell looked to me like it's of Cybertronian design. And you're an Autobot, aren't you? You sure you don't know anything about it?"

He received an incredulous look from Fisitron, who shifted slightly in his spot. "Are you kidding me? Look, just because it's of Autobot design that doesn't mean I'd know anything about it. I'm just one Autobot, out of many hundreds of thousands."

Valkyr fixed his gaze on him, crossing his arms in a defensive posture. "I never said it was of Autobot design, now did I?" he said slowly.

Having been caught out in a minor falsehood, Fisitron quickly glanced away, laughing it off. "Right – whatever. That's not what I meant. The mechs who you should really be questioning are those two over there – not me."

Dismissing Fisitron with a wave of his hand, Valkyr walked back towards Raptor, no longer interested in what the Autobot had to say. "Far as I'm concerned, that Autobot's a friggin' liar, and no better than any Decepticon," he said casually, making sure that Raptor heard him. "Max should have shot him dead. If I had a functioning blaster I'd fucking do it myself." He turned and fell back against the wall, let out a heavy sigh. "Fuck, I could really do with a cigarette right about now." Then he waited, hoping that Raptor would react. And, after a minute, he got just that, though it wasn't the reaction he had sought.

Raptor unpeeled the front of his suit, retrieved a small device from a hidden compartment near his chest, and sealed his suit back up again. Then he walked a few steps across the room, bent down to pick up Max's spent blaster, and reloaded it with a replacement power cell. Watching with silent apprehension, Valkyr kicked himself away from the wall with his foot and walked up to him, but when he saw that Raptor began to steadily approach the two Deceptions, he jumped in front of him, pushing the cyborg back with one hand. In the same moment, Starscream began to stand up, alerted, yet he was finding difficult to move with ease.

"Wait! Wait! Let me do it!" Valkyr burst out quickly. "I'll find out what they know – and then I'll kill 'em both. Or, even better – I'll kill the quiet one and leave the asshole to you. What do you say, huh? Come on, hand me the gun."

Raptor stopped in his tracks and looked at Valkyr. Then a small smile tugged at his face, and he slowly offered his partner the weapon. "Alright. Do it," he said.

Valkyr grabbed the blaster from him, checked it over, and then nodded gratefully. "Thanks. Time to have a little fun."

But Raptor wasn't interested in his gratitude, or his amusement; instead, he turned and walked back to his corner of the room, where he would be able to watch the Decepticons' interrogation and execution without getting in Valkyr's way. Either way, he wasn't concerned; he could easily kill Valkyr just as he'd done to Cyrus, if the man proved unreliable or deceitful.

Without wasting a moment, Valkyr aimed the gun directly at Starscream, waving it in front of his face. "Alright, you piece of shit – now it's _my_ turn."

Starscream exchanged a cautionary glance with Scavenger, unsure of the man's intentions, but after a moment he decided to play along. "I… I don't know anything."

"Sure. That's why the writing's on the fucking wall, huh? Come on, do you really expect me to believe a fucking thing either of you say?" Valkyr replied, sounding angrier by the second. "You're both fucking _Decepticons_, for fuck's sake!"

"Look, why don't you just calm down–" Starscream began, but he was shut down by Valkyr's incessant tirade.

"No! Don't you fucking tell me to calm down, asshole!" He paused for a moment, glancing briefly back at Fisitron. The Autobot seemed to be enjoying the show. "That Autobot's just as much a piece of scumbag shit as you two are – don't get me wrong, but he's _not_ the one who got us all trapped in here in the first place! You two did! This is both your fucking fault!" As he shouted in anger, pointing the gun fervently at the Decepticons, Tia quietly approached, walking up to them until she stopped right beside Valkyr.

In a soft, barely audible voice, she asked, "Is it true? Are these two the ones responsible for sending my Brom in here to die?"

"No, lady – don't listen to him," Scavenger defended. "He doesn't know what he's saying."

Tia's head turned slowly to the side, until her optics met his red visor. "The Decepticons know," she said softly, repeating the Game's latest message and studying the green and purple Constructicon as though he were some lab mech-rat. "The Decepticons know," she echoed.

Her odd behaviour caught Valkyr's attention; he stopped focusing on Starscream for a moment to observe the Azurian femme and wondered at what point, exactly, she had completely flipped.

"The Decepticons know," she repeated again in an eerie, high-pitched voice.

She was making Valkyr feel uneasy, so he decided to interrupt her in the hopes that she would snap out of whatever crazy head space she was in right now. "Hey, lady–" But it was a bad idea, and one that would almost cost them all their freedom.

In less than a micro-second, she reached out and wrestled the weapon from his hands, before pushing him away with a hard shove. He stumbled backwards onto the floor, but by the time he'd picked himself up again it was too late. Tia now had possession of the gun, and was pointing it at the Decepticons; first at Scavenger, then at Starscream. Her feet were spread apart in a dominant stance as she gripped the blaster with both hands, arms held out straight before her.

"Lady, give me the gun," Valkyr said, slowly reaching out to her. "Tia, just give me the damn gun."

But Tia ignored him, as if she didn't even hear him. "The Decepticons know," she re-iterated, her attention completely focused upon her enemies. "The Decepticons know…"

"Tia, you don't have to do this," Starscream tried to reason with her, but all he got for his effort was a barrel aimed point-blank at his face.

"The Decepticons know," she reminded him one more time, her lip twitching uncontrollably. Her once warm, blue optics had become as cold as ice.

"Oh, shit," Valkyr muttered under his breath, upon full realization of what Tia intended to do. But his reaction time was too slow, as he leaped forward suddenly in an attempt to push the gun out of the way, and failed.

However, Scavenger's reaction time was faster. He had also pre-empted Tia's move, and had jumped in front of Starscream as he reached out with one hand to deflect the weapon, just as Tia squeezed the trigger. Her hands were swept downward toward the floor as a bright pink, scorching beam of energy blazed out of the gun.

"Ahhh!" Scavenger called out in surprise.

Starscream caught Scavenger as he stumbled forwards; the Constructicon was bent over in pain, pressing his hands against his side, one knee on the floor. "Slag it!" Starscream exclaimed, reverting to traditional Cybertronian expletives. "Scavenger, you're hit!" He afforded one quick glance at the site of his injury to check the damage, and saw that he'd been blasted in the middle of his left side.

Scavenger nodded earnestly, tried to stand without assistance. "I'll be okay. Just – make sure you get that gun off her," he said, wincing as he indicated towards Tia, who had since recovered from the unexpected deflection and was staring down at the Decepticons with glazed optics, the blaster once again aimed at Starscream's head. She was so intent on wanting to blast a huge hole right through his spark chamber and then bash his face in that she was unaware of Valkyr standing directly behind her, until she heard the soft click of his switchblade knife.

Puzzled, she turned to look behind her, and did not realize that the sharp blade of the metal knife had suddenly become embedded into her head, right through a seam on her cranial casing, until it was too late. She cried out and tried to strike back at her attacker all at once, but she had lost her balance and was now reeling, as the foreign object interfered with her neural connections. Still, she groped at empty space for him, aiming the gun uselessly at the air, but could not seem to pinpoint his position. The knife was plunged deep into the back of her head like some obscene protrusion, even as she tried valiantly to pull it out.

It had taken Valkyr all the strength he could call forth to penetrate her skull frame with the knife, and he had not spared an ounce of it. As he watched her weaken and drop to her knees, jerking spasmodically as her brain functions began to shut down, the torn metal casing around the blade sparking with electrical energy, she cried out one last time in anguish, "They must die!" Then she fell to the floor, deactivated.

Valkyr bent down to quickly retrieve the gun from her lifeless hands, and then jumped back in relief. He suddenly remembered Raptor behind them, and realized that the cyborg was probably enjoying watching them all kill each other. He cleared his throat. "Serves her right for trying to steal my thunder," he said. "So, where were we?" Stepping around Tia's inert frame, he raised the blaster in front of him, aiming it at Scavenger. He tried to stall for more time, looking around for some excuse to delay shooting him. But just when he thought he'd blown his cover, the fallen Autobot called out to him from across the room.

"Hey… Valkyr!"

Valkyr turned his attention to Fisitron. "The fuck do you want?"

"Make them suffer first." With a seemingly great effort, Fisitron began to drag his frame across the floor, closer towards the man. "Here… I can show you how."

"And why would I do that, when I can just end their miserable lives right now?" he replied.

"Because…" Fisitron crawled across the floor until he came to a stop right beside Valkyr, lifting himself up to his knees. He had left a trail of energon behind him. "That way… they'll tell us everything we want to know." He gave Starscream a vindictive smile.

A silent standoff between Fisitron and the two Decepticons followed. Valkyr glanced at the three of them, trying to decide what he should do. After a moment he made his decision. "Okay. Just – just tell me what to do."

Fisitron nodded carefully in satisfaction. "Okay. Good." He extended a hand out to him. "But first, I need you to give me your gun."

There was a moment of confusion as Starscream yelled out to him, "Valkyr, watch out!"

Before Valkyr was aware of what was happening, the seeker leaped straight for the Autobot, who had all of a sudden recovered from his weapons blast to the chest. Valkyr managed to jump back just in time, Fisitron's outstretched hand inches away from snatching the gun from him.

Despite Starscream's sword injury, he managed to tackle the large Autobot to the ground, only to soon find himself in a struggle for survival as he pitted all his strength against his larger opponent's. Starscream put up a good fight, and was already looking much stronger since his internal repair system had had a chance to mend the worst of the damage he'd sustained.

"I'm going to wring your neck, you worthless piece of shit!" Fisitron threatened in his audio sensor, as he forced himself into a dominant position, holding the Decepticon beneath him.

"_Not… on… your… life_!" Starscream managed to throw back, just before grabbing Fisitron around his neck and pulling him forwards. Using Fisitron's weight and momentum against him, the Autobot lost his balance and tumbled off him. Starscream quickly rolled away before getting back up to his feet. "Autobot scrap!"

"Shut up," the Autobot picked himself up off the floor as well, and connected a fist with an open palm. "This'll be my pleasure." Fisitron lunged at him again, fury burning bright in his optics.

A right hook narrowly missed Starscream's face as the seeker ducked to avoid the blow, but Fisitron was relentless, throwing one punch at him after the other, until a powerful backhand strike sent him sprawling, his winged frame scraping along the floor and sliding to a stop beside Tia's lifeless shell, face down. He strained to pick himself up, still not fully recovered from his clash with Raptor, and felt Fisitron's strong hand turning him roughly over, followed by one large foot pinning him down at his mid-section.

Fisitron stood over his Decepticon opponent, victorious, tilting his neck from side to side in preparation for smashing the seeker's cranial unit in with his fists. "Say goodbye, Starscream," he said, smiling wickedly as he pulled back a fist behind his head, aiming to get as much strength as possible behind the swing.

While Scavenger was powerless to stop the Autobot from finishing off his companion as he watched helplessly, doing what he could to resist the debilitating effects of his own injury from the weapon blast, Valkyr, however, was not. The man had managed to hold onto the gun, and was now faced with a crucial decision. Shoot Fisitron, and risk his own execution at Raptor's hands, or do nothing, and allow Starscream to die. Either way, time had surely run out, and he needed to act fast.

The countdown clock on the wall had just reached 00.00.


	8. Game Over

_Game Over_

* * *

"Ah, fuck it." Valkyr pointed the gun at Fisitron, and fired.

"Arrrgh!"

A brilliant stream of lethal energy hit the Autobot's left optic at close range just as his fist sailed through the air towards Starscream's face like a war hammer, but it was all the seeker needed to escape from the clutches of death as he scrambled away from Fisitron, the Autobot's bulky frame stumbling backwards and releasing him from under its heavy weight.

As smoke and sparks poured forth out of Fisitron's ocular cavity, Valkyr took another step toward him, aimed the weapon and fired again; this time, the blast burned a hole straight through the Autobot's gaping mouth and out the back of his head. One more shot to the temple, and Valkyr had sealed the Autobot's fate.

"This time, I'm gonna make sure you stay dead," Valkyr said to him. But Fisitron was no longer able to hear him, or comprehend what was going on; he was quickly dying, this time for real, as his neural circuitry sizzled and shorted inside his cranial unit. Valkyr slowly lowered his weapon, watching with morbid fascination as the Cybertronian mechanoid's life force was drained away, the blue, shattered optics finally succumbing to an ominous black.

However, as Valkyr would learn only a few seconds later, the Game was nowhere near over for him; he had inadvertently replaced one enemy for another.

"Valkyr, behind you!" he heard Starscream warn, and he turned around just in time to see the cyborg striding towards them. The energy sword had reappeared in his hand.

"Wait, stop!" Valkyr shouted at him, holding out his hands in defence. In the midst of the chaos that erupted around him, time seemed to stand still for an instant; it was his turn now to die, he realized with a cold sense of foreboding that suddenly hit him.

The blade pierced his lung and sunk in, and he felt his very breath forced out of him. The pain that followed was excruciating as the electrical energy from the blade surged through his entire body, yet he was unable to cry out in pain; his muscles were paralysed, the only thing he could do was watch with eyes wide as Raptor formed a twisted smile. Then, still in a state of confusion and fear that seemed timeless, he felt Raptor pull the sword out of his body without warning, and he exhaled sharply as the paralysis began to dissipate. Coughing up blood and fighting for every gulp of air, Valkyr slowly sank to his knees, doubled up in pain.

Raptor swung his arm back, read to deliver the death blow like the blade of a guillotine being released, but just before the last second he was taken by surprise as Starscream reached Valkyr and grabbed the blaster from the dying man's hand. Less than a second later, the barrel of the weapon was being pushed into the cyborg's back.

"Drop the fucking sword," Starscream instructed him in a voice that was deceptively calm. "_Now._"

Raptor froze, his smile fading as his expression turned cold. In a moment of tense silence, he released his grip on the sword, and it dropped to the floor with a clang. Upon hitting the floor the blade retracted automatically, leaving behind only the hilt. Starscream kicked it away, and it skimmed across the floor.

The seeker shifted his position until he stood between Valkyr and the cyborg, carefully keeping his aim steady as he focused his attention fully on the enemy. The gun was now pointed directly between Raptor's eyes.

"Good. Now, here's what's going to happen next," Starscream told him. "You're going to end this Game, right now." Directly behind him, Valkyr's strained breathing was becoming fainter with every second that went by.

Raptor regarded him with a hateful smirk, turning his head slightly as he watched Scavenger gradually making his way closer to Starscream and Valkyr with some effort. Then, much to Starscream's chagrin, he let out a soft, contemptuous laugh.

"What's so damn funny?" Starscream said, his voice rising in anger.

The cyborg stopped laughing and curled the corners of his mouth to form a sneer. "The Game doesn't end until the last man is standing. Or, in your case, the last _mech_."

Starscream shoved the barrel into Raptor's forehead, pushing his head back roughly. "Is this all just a fucking game to you?" he yelled into the deadly cyborg's eardrums. "Oh, I will gladly end your miserable life, you twisted piece of shit, but not until you release us from this fucking prison. Have I made that clear enough for you, or do I have to blast your head open anyway?"

Raptor did not flinch or react, but only answered the seeker in a manner that was completely devoid of empathy. "You're not getting out of here until the Game ends, you are both dead… and I am the winner," he informed Starscream, keeping his gaze levelled and unwavering upon his Decepticon foe as if tracking his every thought, waiting for the right time to strike back.

"Very well – have it your way, then," Starscream replied, and squeezed the trigger.

Raptor's fast reflexes enabled him to deflect the full brunt of the shot and knock the gun out of Starscream's hands, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid being hit, as the energy blast sheared off a chunk of his face. The weapon was thrown a short distance, landing on the floor beside Scavenger.

Now on the defensive, Starscream had to act quickly if he wanted to evade Raptor's sudden deadly onslaught of melee attack. The part organic-part mechanoid came at the seeker full bore, throwing his arms out in fierce sweeping blows as he sought to close in on his target. Starscream was able enough to fight back, though he still hadn't recovered fully from his first encounter with the killer and so was unable to prevent being hit with a slug. He reeled backwards as Raptor's forearm impacted his face, but he didn't have time even to notice the spilled energon coming from the fresh cuts across his cheek. The cyborg was far stronger than any organic, Starscream realized, and possessed a physical strength that would easily rival many mechs. He was nothing short of a killing machine.

However, Raptor was not a Decepticon, and Starscream would defeat him. He had to defeat him – he had no other choice.

Recovering quickly, Starscream circled wide around the room as he avoided tripping over the bodies of the dead, keeping his optics locked on his opponent. As Raptor made a beeline for him, he quickly bent down to pick up the hilt of the sword lying on the floor and in the same instant drove Raptor back with a side kick just as he approached. The cyborg tottered for a moment in an effort to regain his balance, and Starscream took advantage of this window of opportunity. He delivered a hard left, his fist making satisfying contact with the intact side of Raptor's face, and then hit him again, this time with a right stab to the center of his visor, followed by a kick to the chest. But Raptor did not fall; he simply leaned back a little, arms flailing, his face turned away.

The sword sprang to life in his hands as he located the button on the hilt. Then, before Raptor could come at him again, he swung the blade down diagonally with all his strength, enabling the foible of the blade to cut into his opponent and leave a long gash right across his chest. Raptor faltered for a moment, but still he would not fall, so Starscream, with a cry of effort, brought the sword down on him again. The sharp edge bit into Raptor's left shoulder, cutting through his suit and tearing into his skin until it met Raptor's skeletal frame. Raptor's hands immediately wrapped around the blade, tightening around it, and with a mighty heave lifted the blade out of his shoulder. The sword's electrified energy seemed to have little effect on him. Fast running out of options, Starscream tried to pull the sword away, but Raptor would not release his grip on the blade; instead, the cyborg pulled the sword closer to himself, leaving Starscream with little option but to relinquish the weapon or risk being attacked.

Now that Raptor had the upper hand once more, Starscream took a few steps back to try to get away from him, and as he did so he stumbled over Brom's deactivated frame, losing his balance. Raptor lunged at him with the sword, aiming for the kill, but then to Starscream's surprise and utter relief, he missed his target.

The cyborg jerked forwards three times, dropping his sword, and spun around in surprise to see who had attacked him. Scavenger was standing there, with some effort, pointing the gun at him. He had discharged it three times, hitting Raptor in the middle of his back. He fired off one more shot at the cyborg's chest and, seeing that he had sufficiently disabled him, lowered the weapon to his side as Raptor fell into a heap on the floor at his feet, slowly dying. A large portion of the cyborg's organic outer covering on his torso had been completely vaporized, his suit melted away to reveal charred and blackened flesh underneath.

Relieved, Starscream gave his friend a silent thank you before looking down at Raptor. He noted that the cyborg hadn't cried out in pain at all – not when the sword had cut through several blood vessels and electrical connections in his chest and shoulder, nor when Scavenger had shot him repeatedly with the blaster; in fact, Raptor had not shown much of any emotion at all, other than a burning desire to win the Game.

"It's game over, asshole," Starscream said, standing over their defeated opponent and looking down upon him with revulsion. Then he indicated for Scavenger to hand him the gun, and crouched down to get closer to Raptor. Grasping the weapon, he held it against Raptor's head. "Who are you? Who do you work for?" he demanded, his voice unforgiving. "Answer me! Who brought us here?"

Raptor turned his head slowly to meet his gaze. Even with a good chunk of his cheek blown off, he managed a cruel smile. Blood covered the rest of his face as it continued to spray out of severed arteries. His suit was in tatters, the front of his hybrid body a mess of burned flesh and exposed organs.

"Talk, and I might not spare your wretched life, just so I can watch you suffer through the worst pain imaginable as I rewire your brain module into a new organic body, you miserable, fucked up piece of slag!" Starscream seethed at him, grabbing him by the throat. "Don't think I'll do it? Try me!" His hand tightened around Raptor's neck. He had no intention of sparing the cyborg's life, regardless. "Now, tell me how to get out of here!" he demanded forcefully.

Raptor's partly destroyed mouth began to quiver ever so slightly, as his bodily systems began to shut down one by one. His organic heart and lungs were barely able to function. "I'd… rather… die," he gasped with his final breath, as he used up the last of his strength in a futile struggle against the Decepticon, and at that moment Starscream realized that he was never going to get anything out of the bastard. He slowly released his grip around Raptor's throat, watching as the cyborg's heart finally stopped beating and his lungs ceased to function, his body dropping limply to the floor. Raptor was finally dead.

"Never screw with a Decepticon," Starscream said bitterly, and moved away, dropping back onto the floor with relief as he took a few moments to try and recover from the intense last few hours that he'd just gone through. It was a miracle that he was still alive, he thought, and then he remembered his companion. When he turned to check on Scavenger, he saw that the Constructicon was standing quietly behind him. He needed repairs – they both did – but at least he was alive and still functioning. However, that was more than could be said for Valkyr. If it weren't for the Xylanthian's actions, neither he nor Scavenger may have survived.

After a few more moments in pause, Starscream moved towards the injured man and carefully repositioned him to a more seated, upright position. The sword had punctured Valkyr's lung and had caused severe internal damage. Blood seeped from the wound in his chest, making his leather jacket stick to his skin as a red pool of liquid collected on the floor.

"Is he… going to be okay?" Scavenger asked in an anxious voice, when his companion had failed to say anything after several moments.

Then Valkyr lifted his head slightly until he was looking up at the seeker. His breathing was heavily laboured, and he was wheezing. "Hey… I want to… apologize… if I called you… an asshole… before," he managed. "Remind me… to… buy you… a drink."

Starscream checked his vital signs. He didn't often interact with organics, though he knew enough about their biological systems to understand what he was dealing with.

"I'm touched," Starscream replied, humouring him. "I'm going to try and get you help," he then said resolutely, before looking back at Scavenger. Exhaustion and fatigue were beginning to claim him. "He's still breathing… barely." That was the good news. The bad news… "But he's losing blood. If we don't get him help soon, he won't make it."

Scavenger looked away from the terrible scene. He never liked the sight of energon flowing out of open wounds, let alone blood, but here he couldn't escape it – the sight of dead corpses and frames lay all around him. He shuddered, and wondered how it was that he had not ended up like the rest of them.

"We've got to find a way out of here," Starscream said with renewed determination.

Scavenger abandoned his morose train of thought and refocused his attention back to his companion. He couldn't agree more. "Any ideas?"

Starscream didn't offer him a reply straight away. Instead, he moved back towards Raptor, looking the cyborg's broken body over as his mind raced with any and all possible solutions. Then, in a moment of unexpected clarity despite his mental and physical weariness, an idea hit him. He scrambled to pull what remained of Raptor's torn suit away from his chest and checked the inside pockets. Retrieving two small objects, he examined them; one was another backup power cell for the blaster, and the other…

"What is it?" Scavenger asked, leaning closer to get a better look. Starscream tossed it over to him, and he caught it. "Looks like… some sort of signal jamming device," he said.

"Yes." Starscream wondered what Raptor had been using it for, and then it suddenly occurred to him. "It could be what's been stopping us from transforming, or using our weapons. Maybe it's dampening our frequencies somehow."

Glancing at his friend, Scavenger nodded quietly before looking back down at the device in his hand, wondering what they should do with it. His question was answered without his needing to ask.

"Destroy it. Let's see what happens."

With one final look at it, Scavenger closed his hand around the device and applied pressure, tightening his fist. The object was crushed easily.

Starscream stood up and looked around the room; he felt as if a weight had suddenly been lifted from his shoulders. He glanced at his null rays, then carefully aimed them at the ceiling, and fired. This time, they worked; not only were his weapons functioning again, but the force field that had contained them all inside their cuboid prison must have also been deactivated, because the blast from his null rays had left a gaping hole in the ceiling. Beyond, the blackness of space was visible once more.

But while their weapons capabilities had been restored, there was still the problem of not knowing what lay waiting for them outside the cube. Starscream did not want to risk another incident like the one that had befallen Shadowstriker.

"Wait – I think my com's working again," Scavenger said suddenly, his mood lifting. "Try yours."

Starscream extended his communications antenna from his forearm, and for the first time since he had woken up in here he allowed himself to smile, incredibly relieved. "Mine's working as well. I'm transmitting a distress signal." Then he released a long, deep cycle of air.

"What now?" Scavenger asked, but he was already thinking about what he was going to tell Scrapper and the rest of the guys when he was reunited with them all again. In fact, there was nothing he was looking forward to more.

"Now, we wait."

And sure enough, twenty minutes later, Starscream received an incoming transmission on his com. There was some interference, but nevertheless the voice on the other end was discernable.

'St – arscream? Are – you ge – tting this? We've jus – t pick – ed up your dis – tress sig – nal.' There was a pause, and when the mech spoke again he sounded a little hesitant. 'Is every – thing o – kay?'

Starscream was about to let him know that yes, everything was okay, although he would need a team of medics in here as soon as possible – for two mechanoids and one organic – but then reconsidered, and instead all he said was, "Skywarp, you've no idea how fucking happy I am to hear your voice."

There was a lingering silence from the other end, and then came his wing mate's response:

'Uh, Star – scream? What – the hell – hap – pened?'

* * *

(Visual quickly cuts to black)

(Play as credits roll: _Pop Evil_ – _"Last Man Standing")_


End file.
